Hearts of Winter
by cgal120
Summary: Having been together for nearly 10 years, Arthur decides that Amelia deserves a treat this Christmas. So, he gives her an advent calender - one with a twist. All she has to do is follow the notes each day and she'll find her surprise, but with 25 days of treats coming her way Arthur has to make sure it's something she'll remember forever. Nyotalia, Christmas present for you guys :3
1. December 1st

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter One**

**December 1st**

When I first met Arthur Kirkland he was 12 years old and I was 11. I had recently moved to the UK from the US when my father had a job transfer which meant that I and my brother Matthew were uprooted from our home in San Francisco all the way to Devon in England. My mother had died when I was six years old so I was very upset about leaving the place we had buried her, but there was no other way around it – Dad was moving to the UK and as the person with custody over us he had to take us with him.

The transfer couldn't happen until the middle of October though, meaning that the school year had already started when we arrived. However, Dad hadn't even picked a new school for us – thinking that it would be easily sorted when we got into the country, like it was some natural selection process… I remember waiting around for a week to find out which school in the area my brother and I would be attending, and believe me when you're eleven the only reason you want to go to school is to make friends.

I thought that I would be going to a nice middle school, but much to my surprise we were put into a reasonably close high school. Or senior school as I was told it was called. It was for children aged 11 to 16 (or 15 as would be the case for me), and every year group was split into 6 sets from the most capable students to the least capable (those with disabilities who would need extra help and carers).

My first day of school was the 16th of October and I was so nervous that I felt ill. My hands were shaking as I tried to button up the red dress I had to where as my uniform and the black tie that went with it. Dad ended up having to sit me down to do the tie himself because I was starting to annoy him with my constant nervous babbling.

"Amelia," he had said. "You'll be fine. Look at Matthew, he's not nervous. You two are going to make a lot of new friends because you're just those kinds of people."

I tried to believe him but he hadn't been in school for a long time, he didn't know the kind of social standings that went in within the classrooms these days – the school year had already begun meaning that people were already settled into their cliques and friendship groups, so chances were they were going to be very apprehensive in letting me join in with them.

Either that or I would end up being the class toy – the cute little American girl that they could poke fun of with my accent and where I come from.

My constant over thinking of things was really not helping my nerves – and even when I was getting out of the car outside the school my hands were still shaking. Matthew had walked with me into the reception to get out timetables and a map of the building; he was my older brother so he was very protective of me. Unfortunately, our time tables were different. We had the same classes at the same times, but we were in different teachers.

So, when it came to my first English class we went to the first floor landing but to different sides of the hallway. He was in Room 5 and I was in Room 3. Everything seemed to be very quiet when I went to open the classroom door – I could see the teacher, a young smiling woman with brown hair and brown eyes, typing away at her computer – but the room seemed to be empty. When I walked inside, I was greeted by the woman (who introduced herself as Miss Fry) and was explained about what I had missed during the weeks I hadn't been there, given a folder and workbook to put all my work in when I took it home to catch up and was pointed to a seat in the back corner of the room.

But the table wasn't as empty as the others were – there was a boy there, with blonde hair, green eyes and large eyebrows. He was reading a book (A Study In Scarlet, as I recall) and wasn't giving anything else the slightest bit of attention. Nervous again, I went over to my seat and sat down, placing my workbook on the table and opening it to the page marked by Miss Fry (she'd stuck all the worksheets in for me so I knew what to do). Only when he heard a noise next to him did the boy look up from his book, a perplexed expression on his face for a moment as he realised that someone new was in the room.

"Uh, hi…" I said, smiling awkwardly. "My name's Amelia… Amelia Jones…"

"Oh, so you're that new girl I heard was coming to our class," he said, setting his book down on the table. "Well, my name's Arthur Kirkland. You're from America, right?"

"What gave me away?" I smiled, joking.

He chuckled and shook his head. "The American flag hair pin?"

Blinking, I felt my hair and realised that indeed did have that hairpin in but then realised from the smile on his face that he was joking – he had meant my accent like I had originally thought.

From that point on, I knew that Arthur and I were going to be very good friends. And I was right. He offered to show me around and be my guide for the week as we were in all the same classes, and we just continued to hang around with each other. He didn't have very many friends because he was so shy, and some of the other boys in the class liked to make fun of his eyebrows and his teeth – he had braces on to try and get the straighter so he was very conscious about smiling in front of everyone, which sort of gave him the air of indifference that made him an easy target.

But I saw past all of the front he put up.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

Year Nine was when every started to change.

It was that time when puberty really started to hit everyone in the year group. Voices were dropping, spots were forming, breasts were getting bigger, hair was growing, and everyone seemed to be becoming more defined. Of course there were the worries of the school's nurse who were becoming so morbidly obese they couldn't get up the stairs, but most people were starting get firmer jaws, curvy waists and such.

Arthur had had his braces removed over the summer, so when he came into class on the first day it took me a moment to recognise him. He was different from what I could remember him – he was taller, leaner, less-baby-faced… His smile was amazing and for some reason I could feel my cheeks heating up and my ears turning a shade of pink I had never felt before.

I had a crush on my best friend and that was just going to make things so awkward.

Or so I thought…

By the time Christmas came around the school was planning its usual End of Term Christmas Party – meaning that the classes were cancelled in favour of letting us roam around freely to a Christmas fair and disco later in the afternoon. Mistletoe was hung in various places around the site, and when Arthur opened the door to the concourse for me we managed to find ourselves underneath the dreaded bundle…

People in the corridor were chanting when they realised two people had been caught out, and as the pressure started to build I looked up at Arthur with a light blush on my face. He looked equally as awkward but cupped my cheek lightly before leaning in and giving me a soft kiss on the lips. At first I was stunned, but after a moment or so my eyes slipped closed and simply allowed the kiss to continue.

When we pulled apart, both of us were a deep shade of red and couldn't really look at each other. He made the first move, taking my hand and pulling me away from the door and towards the stairs near the reception. We walked up a couple and sat down, Arthur taking a deep breath before looking me in the eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, running his hand through his messy hair cumbersomely. "I… I bet you must feel awful…"

"What?" I asked, really surprised. "Don't be stupid!"

"You're not mad at me?" he asked.

"No, Moron," I smiled, nudging his arm. "That was… that was nice."

Looking at me confusedly, Arthur tilted his head. "Nice?" he asked. He watched as my face brightened again, his eyebrows rising slightly. "Only nice?" he smiled.

Blinking, I looked at him surprised – only just managing to catch his smile before his lips pressed to mine again. He was kissing me again, of his own accord this time. Pulling back for a moment, I smiled at him and shifted a little closer.

"What's with all the kisses, Arthur?" I asked.

"What do you think?" he replied.

It wasn't conventional and it was nothing like the fairy tales say, but when Arthur kissed me once more we both knew that things had changed for the better.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

We stayed together all through the rest of our time at that senior school, then right through college. During those years, we learnt more things about each other that I had never known by just being his friend. I loved spending afternoons with him taking the bus to the beach and sitting on the sand, or wandering through the streets when Christmas came around and looking at the large tree that was placed in the village.

I loved him and he loved me, and every time he held my hand or kissed my cheek felt right.

We were good with our relationship too, despite the urges that seemed to crop up from time to time before hand – during the summer after we had finished school, after my 16th birthday, we had our first time. It was legal but most of all, it was special. Everything about it felt right, despite the clumsiness and the pain of losing virginity – I wouldn't change anything that happened.

When the end of our time at college came, we became conscious that we might be seeing less of each other – he was going to a university in Portsmouth to study journalism and I was staying in Devon to do an apprenticeship with a local day care centre to become a professional child minder. He'd be home for the big holidays like Easter, Summer and Christmas but until he was 21 he wouldn't properly home for 3 years…

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

The three years without Arthur nearby were very long and boring. I tended to mope around the house whilst getting yelled at by my father. The stress within his own job and the breakdown of yet another relationship (he hadn't been able to keep a woman since Mom died) was turning him into a very angry man, and I was just thankful that I was at an age where I could hit him back and be able to run away quick enough.

He was constantly criticising my line of work, saying that I was a fool for going into a worthless apprenticeship – despite the fact that I was being paid and had some pretty good benefits and flexible hours… Just because Matthew was in another city doing an apprenticeship to be a carpenter – obviously making a lot more money than I was ever going to make and living with his girlfriend, Sofia…

I gave up in the end.

Not my studies, my home. I found myself a cheap apartment to rent, packed up all my stuff and moved out. I had everything I needed, except for my boyfriend, but with the Internet we were able to Skype for hours whilst he needed distracting from assignments. He didn't seem that happy about the situation I was in, but when I told him that I was happier away from my father he seemed to ease up on the subject a little.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

Arthur showed up on my 21st birthday, a smile on his face and presents in his hands. He had come back to the area having finished his studies and not told me about his graduation. But I didn't care; there he was outside my front door. I hugged him tightly and kissed him, loving the feeling of his arms wrapping around my waist. He was so warm and familiar and there…

"Happy birthday, Amelia," he said against my lips.

"I can't believe you're really here," I smiled, tearing up a little. He chuckled and wiped my eyes, leading me inside and sitting me down on my sofa.

"Of course I'd be here," he smiled. "You're the woman I love and there's nothing in my way anymore. Which is another reason I'm here…"

"What?"

"I've been offered a job in Somerset," he said. "I've been looking around and there's a few day care centres there and good homes and…"

"Are you asking me to move to Somerset with you?" I asked. He nodded a little so I kissed him softly. "Yes."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

We'd been living in our house for about 3 years, I was now 24 and he had recently turned 25.

It was December 1st, meaning that I was getting excited for Christmas already. Arthur had to go to work earlier that morning as his start of the Christmas season stories were starting to come in – he was still working for the local paper but had been promoted a fair few times and was becoming a very respected journalist. He had more flexible hours too, and the early starts were just a simple way to make sure he could spend more time with me during the holidays.

I loved that the 1st of December was a Saturday, not only did it mean that I didn't have to go into work (I'd become a nursery nurse in a preschool meaning I go to follow the school timetable instead of the general work one) but it also meant that I got to stay in my pyjamas whilst I did all of the decorating.

I'd started with the simple things first: setting fake candle-lights on the windowsills and sellotaping fairy lights to the windows to make it look festive, hanging tinsel around mirrors and setting out all the pretty Christmas decorations I'd collected over the years around the living room and in the hallway.

It was coming up to 1pm, and I had put up the base of the Christmas tree up – we had an artificial tree so that we could use it for years, but it seemed like a genuine pine tree. I knew that Arthur would be home soon, so had taken a break to put some fresh water in the kettle so that he could have a cup of tea when he got in. I'd have made it for him but he had this little ritual that couldn't be tampered with, hence why he made his own tea. I always did the cooking though – he wasn't allowed to make anything more than toast after he nearly burnt the house down one time.

I was wrapping the second set of lights around the tree branches when I heard the front door open, smiling as I waited for Arthur's usual call to sound.

"Amie? I'm home," he called out on cue, heading into the living room and chuckling at the sight of me in Wonder Woman pyjamas trying to wrap multi-coloured lights around a tree twice my size. "So you did a lot whilst I was gone?"

"Yep," I grinned. "I'm nearly done too! Just the tree to finish."

"I'll leave you to do that then," Arthur chuckled. "I know how OCD you are about that tree."

"You're OCD with tea so I'm allowed to have my tree," I replied, finally getting the lights on.

"Well, now you've got that bit sorted, take a break and look at the treat I got you!"

Looking round from the tree, I watched Arthur as he hung his coat up and brought a carrier bag over to me. I took it from him and smiled as I pulled out a cute little advent calendar – I hadn't had one for so long and kept bugging Arthur about them… I couldn't believe he'd actually got me one.

"Oh, Arthur this is so awesome!" I grinned.

"That's not just any old advent calendar," he said, intriguing me. "It's personalised. Not only do you get your bit of chocolate, you'll get something else. Open door 1 and you'll find out everything."

"Okay…" I said, smiling until he left the room to make his tea. Curious about this idea of his, I opened the first door and took out the chocolate, finding a note underneath it. I unfolded the paper and saw Arthur's tiny writing printed to it:

_Amelia,_

_I remembered how much you wanted an advent calendar so decided to get you one. But this one has a twist to it – every day you will find a note and each note will lead you somewhere or give you an instruction. You'll get a treat or surprise each day._

_Everything showing just how much I love you._

_Love, Arthur x_

I smiled a little as I read and reread the note – everything about it was so sweet, he was planning to treat me for 25 days. I was suspicious about what he was going to do, but that didn't really seem to matter – just the thought that he was being so romantic was enough to keep the smile on my face when he came back into the room.

"Like it?" he asked, smiling in a way that suggested he meant more than just the calendar itself.

"I do," I replied.

_**Notes:**_

**You know, I'm really pushing myself this year. Not only is In The Shadows finishing soon, I have other stories to work on too and yet I'm giving you all one more for my 2****nd**** Christmas on this site!**

**It's an advent calendar for you guys too and I've not really written a 1****st**** person story from Amelia's POV before. Elf flopped last year, but this one is going to go right through to Christmas Eve. Yes, there will be 25 chapters. I take my laptop with me to my nan's because they end up watching shit and I get bored so I'll end up sitting there writing and update when I get home :D**

**Also, please no complaints at more Nyotalia. It's just a story so just enjoy it and don't take things so seriously :D**

**I will update my other stories as regularly as I can during this project.**

**R&R, fave, alert, and I will see you tomorrow :D**


	2. December 2nd

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Two**

**December 2nd**

The only thing that I didn't like about winter was how cold it could get – and for the part of the country Arthur and I lived in, it could get pretty cold at that time of the year. I felt sorry for Arthur as he had to go out to work on a Sunday, but that couldn't be helped if we wanted to keep enough money coming into the house.

It was a lot colder that morning than I had been expecting it to be, not just because the bed was empty except for me when I woke up but the heating hadn't been turned on and the weather had taken an unexpected turn. We had been forecasted floods so we had been gearing up to make sure that as little water came into our homes as possible, but much to my surprise there was snow falling outside our bedroom window. I didn't particularly feel like getting out of bed, I was just managing to warm myself up by wrapping the blankets around me more…

Sighing a little, I looked to the alarm clock on the table beside Arthur's side of the bed and saw that it said 10am – I felt rather lazy considering that Arthur was probably out in the snow getting stories or gathering information on the Christmas events in the village. So I reluctantly hauled myself out of bed – I wasn't going to get dressed though, I wasn't feeling that guilty just yet. Instead, I put on some thick fluffy socks and my dressing gown before heading down to the living room to have something to eat.

I was a little surprised when I got downstairs to see that the fire was on in the living room, that being the only place that seemed to have any warmth in it. I smiled, knowing that Arthur had left it on for my benefit – quickly heading into the kitchen to get myself some breakfast and a hot drink so that I could sit and relax. My smile softened as I looked at the kitchen side – there was water in the kettle, my favourite hot chocolate was set out with my mug and the bread was left out in the wrapper so that I could make myself some toast.

"Arthur, you're so sweet sometimes," I said to myself, putting some bread into the toaster so that it would be ready whilst I made myself some hot chocolate. I buttered the toast when it popped, taking my mug and the plate into the living room where I curled up on the sofa and turned on the TV. I flicked through the channels to my heart's content, looking at the random adverts that all seemed to be on at the same time. They were Christmas themed adverts – the _Argos_ aliens getting Christmas presents, _Waitrose_ Christmas', gift ideas…

In the end, I decided that I would leave on GOLD and watch some of the old comedies that Arthur always talked about. Despite having lived in the UK for just over 13 years, I had never gotten around to watching some of the old comedy shows that Arthur would talk about. Well, I'd seen a few episode of some when Arthur had control of the TV – _Only Fools and Horses_ was definitely one that I wanted to see more of, it was so tragically funny. At that moment, the channel was showing the Christmas special of _Steptoe and Son_ – I had never heard of this one for the life of me, and for some reason I could tell why. It was so dark but comical, the old guy was disgusting and his son not far off but you could just tell how much they had a love-hate relationship towards each other.

I was glad that I only just got some of the jokes that were being told as I was able to get through my toast and sip my hot chocolate carefully without burning myself. One time I had hot chocolate whilst watching a comedy and I ended up sucking it up too quickly and burning the inside of my throat as I laughed… Arthur had to make sure I had only cold water for a little while to sooth the soreness…

Everything felt right around me: the TV, the decorations, the warm glow from the fire… Well, almost right – I wanted Arthur with me, but I knew that I couldn't have that for a little while.

Then I remembered his advent calendar.

I got up out of my seat and looked around for it, finding it placed on the unit perched behind some photos to keep it from falling down. I got it out from its hiding spot without knocking the pictures over for once and scanned over the cardboard to try and find the door that said _2_ on it. When I finally found the door, I carefully pulled it open and took out the chocolate to find another note.

_In the basement you will find a purple box, there will be your first surprise._

"The basement?" I muttered, eating the chocolate. I put the calendar back in its place and went to the kitchen to unlock the basement door – we kept it locked after I accidentally fell down the stairs when we first moved in… Carefully, I went downstairs, keeping a firm grip on the banister just in case I caught my socks on something and fell down again. The light bulb needed changing but I had enough light around me to be able to see where I was going – the place was filled with old boxes filled with Halloween decorations that still needed to be taken up into the attic and other mementos from various trips.

I had to really look for the box, I just couldn't see it anywhere in the room – it was like Arthur had just made it up. But after a little while I noticed a slight change in colour, smiling as I crouched down before the little purple box and pulled it out of its hiding place behind a large blue plastic box. I opened it and blinked as I found another note, picking it up and holding it closer to my face so I could read it in the dim lighting:

_I kissed you and you kissed back. We were cold on that evening, but the blush on your face and the sparkle in your eyes made everything warmer. The lights made you look radiant, but you didn't (and still don't) need any help with that. I remember it like it was yesterday._

I turned the card over and blinked as I looked at an old picture of myself and Arthur - we were 14/15 years old, in the town centre with Christmas lights hung all around us.

This was a picture from our first date…

I'd never seen this picture before… Arthur had taken it on his camera but that was the last I'd heard of it – we both looked so baby-faced and happy.

I was wearing a pink beanie with a matching scarf and gloves, plus a thick red coat; Arthur was wearing a navy coat and dark red scarf and ear muffs. I could see snow floating around us, sticking to my hair.

I could remember that evening like it was yesterday too – I had been so nervous but I didn't really understand why. I had hung out alone with Arthur plenty of times before, but I figured that it was because this was an actual date that I was nervous about it going wrong – he could have started to hate me for something I did and I'd lose him as a friend… Dad had found it amusing that my best friend and I were going out on a date, he'd met Arthur before and had assumed him to be gay because of his interests – so when Arthur turned up on my doorstep he was taken inside and given the father-boyfriend talk whilst I was out of the room.

Needless to say when Arthur told me what had happened I was beet red and planning to murder my father…

But when we got to the town centre and the Christmas-y air struck us, everything seemed to just settle into its own little swing – we went to a café and had some hot drinks, went ice skating in the rink they always set up, and watched as a new haze of snow started to fall down upon us. We were acting like we did when we hung out, but when we kissed it just seemed to add to the evening – he held my face again and gently kissed me as the snow started to fall, and I kissed him back as my hands clutched to his jacket. It was perfect, like we should have been doing this the whole time, and when I got home and flopped onto my bed I could remember thinking about how I never wanted that evening to end – my heart was light and I felt like everything was falling into place for once.

I smiled; I genuinely couldn't believe that he remembered something from so long ago or that he still had the photograph he had taken that night…

Holding it close to me, I walked back upstairs and closed the door behind me again – looking round when I heard the front door close. Before he could do anything more than turn around, I ran over to Arthur and hugged him tightly; ignoring the cold I felt from the snow lingering on his coat.

"Whoa," he said, just managing to keep his balance. He chuckled and made me move back to take his coat off before hugging me back. "What's this for?"

"I love you," I said, smiling up at him. He had an expression on his face that showed he was playing dumb, but I showed him the photo anyway. "I can't believe you kept this… that you remembered that night…"

"Of course I kept it," he smiled. "Why would I throw away a memory like that? You were so beautiful and bashful, it was odd seeing you so subdued until you finally let your guard down again. I thought you were the most beautiful person for miles and loved that you chose to be with me... So many guys had a crush on you and yet you were there with me. I couldn't believe my luck…"

"I only saw you," I smiled, smoothing his cold cheek. "I wouldn't and never will want anyone else…"

He chuckled, so I went up on my tiptoes and kissed him – smiling against it as he wrapped his arms around my waist. He kissed me back, holding me close and sharing my warmth. When we pulled back for air, he lent his forehead down on mine and looked into my eyes – smiling warmly at me as the tips of our noses lightly bumped together.

"If this is how you've reacted to this, I can't wait to see your reactions to the other surprises," he grinned. I laughed and kissed him again.

"It's not the surprises," I said. "It's you."

_**Notes:**_

**A shorter chapter than usual but with 25 chapters the number will soon build up :)**

**Oh, to the review saying about Christmas Eve in Denmark, that's the same for us here in Britain. We have Christmas Eve on the 24****th**** and Christmas Day on the 25****th****. The next day is Boxing Day on the 26****th****, which is also St. Stephen's Day in the Republic of Ireland.**

**I said in the notes the last chapter that the 24****th**** would have 2 updates – one earlier in the day and one later on because I can write it when I'm out at my Nan's :)**

**I was listening to the Christmas Playlist on my blog whilst writing this. I REGRET NOTHING.**

**Also, if you would like to suggest something you'd like to see happen then that's okay :) I'll see what I can do to try and blend it in.**

**Oh, and the M rating is there for a good reason ;D**


	3. December 3rd

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Three**

**December 3****rd**

My days of relaxation were over for another week – it was Monday again, and the screaming of Arthur's alarm clock woke me up as it did with him. I groaned and tried to roll over him to shut it off, but that only made Arthur grumble and wrap his arms around me. He rolled us himself and pinned me down on the bed, as was our customary morning routine, before turning off the alarm clock himself and giving me a quick kiss.

"Morning, Love," he said against my lips, pulling away before I could kiss him back. I chuckled a little and looked up at him from where I was lying, smiling at his cheeky grin.

"Mornin', Artie," I said, knowing full well that he hated that nickname – hey, if he was going to tease me that early in the morning then I was going to get some revenge. He narrowed his eyes mock-threateningly and shook his head, getting on top of me again and pinning me to the mattress again. "What?" I asked innocently.

"Don't you give me that innocent look," he said, grinning a little though still trying to look threatening. "You know exactly what you were doing."

"I have no idea what you mean," I grinned, laughing and wriggling as he started to tickle me.

"Lies!" he shouted, continuing to tickle me until he could tell that I was losing the ability to breathe. He stopped and got off of me, allowing me to get my breath back and sit up – I glared at him playful, tackling him into the mattress and tickling him in retaliation. He flailed and choked out a laugh, managing to push me off and chuckle. "You're nuts."

"So are you, Arthur," I replied. "Now go get in the shower…"

"Join me," he demanded. I blinked – we had had showers together before of course but he was normally so tetchy about it, he was very conscious of his body and his inability to grow muscles any bigger than he already had… I loved him how he was – his average height, lean build and shape; he was perfect to hug and I liked to hug him a lot, even when it annoyed him. "Don't make me ask again."

"Okay, okay," I said, getting off of the bed. I followed him into the bathroom and watched as he turned on the shower, pulling off my pyjamas and watching as he did the same. He smiled at me when we were both naked, motioning for me to get into the shower first – so I did, smiling as I felt his arms wrap around my waist when he got under the water with me.

The thing about showering with someone else was you generally end up doing things a little differently to when you're in the shower alone. For instance, when I was alone in the shower I would end up singing loudly to the waterproof radio I had hung on taps. I'd wash my hair twice, then put conditioner on and leave it on to soak in whilst I washed my body and face, the rinse everything off. I never dance in the shower for obvious reasons, but I did move around slightly to the music as I sang. I know that Arthur had heard me singing a fair few times as he was always sat on the bed with a smug look on his face like he caught me doing something really embarrassing.

Which he had but still…

I never knew what Arthur did in the shower, he had the radio on too but he never sang. Believe me, I stood by the door with my ear pressed to the wood listening intently in the hopes of catching him singing or even humming to himself, but no such luck arose… To be honest, he probably spent some time with the trouser snake in there so that wasn't really something I wanted to think about…

But some of the times we had had a shower together we had ended up having sex – he'd pick me up against the wall and just press into me, kissing my neck as he did so. I always let him because I secretly loved seeing his dominant side come out in those times – he never had a condom in the shower, but I was on the pill and was very vigilant with it until recently; I had that mind set in the early days of us living together that if I were to get pregnant and he left me I wouldn't know what to do, I mean, I hadn't spoken to my Dad for years, Matt was in a different part of the country and didn't speak to me that much so I would end up totally alone. But as we grew older and matured, I realised that he would stay with me if I did get pregnant – he had talked about having kids and about the idea of having a daughter being the best thing in the world, a son would be just as great but he always talked about having a daughter. So pregnancy didn't scare me as much as it used to, I knew we were in a position now that we could give a child a real home and proper upbringing.

Today was different: he had taken it upon himself to just lather up the sponge with the body wash and gently clean all over my body. He let me wash my face myself just in case he got soap in my eyes, but apart from that he just washed over my body gently – washing everywhere his hands went as he touched my body. It was nice, I was blushing, but it was nice. When it came to washing my hair, I asked to just do that myself as I had a specific routine I liked to keep with so he allowed me to do that – and whilst the conditioner was in my hair I took the opportunity to return the favour; taking the sponge and re-lathering it to wash over Arthur's body. He washed his hair whilst I washed around his torso, chuckling as I tried to tickle him at the same time. It didn't work though, so we both rinsed off and smiled at each other.

Slowly, he reached his hand forward and smoothed my damp cheek, moving his hand down the side of my face to tilt it up by my chin – he leant down and kissed me softly on the lips, pulling back and smiling charmingly at me as my heart skipped a beat.

I loved it when he was spontaneously romantic like that – so I knew that by Christmas Day I was going to be a crying, soppy mess…

We got out of the shower, wrapping towels around ourselves to dry off then made our way into the bedroom to finish off getting ready. I had to go into work at the day care centre until 12:15 (we had really random shifts…), and I knew that the kids were going to start getting into excited moods when they came in and saw all the decorations we had put up after they had gone home on the Friday.

I had no idea what time Arthur would be working to that day – during the week it varied so much, one day he could be working from lunchtime to dinner, the next it could be dinner to evening or even morning to lunch. That day it seemed like he was working morning till lunch, so I was hoping that I would be able to see him when I got home from work.

I dried my hair once I had put on my work t-shirt, attempting to straighten it afterwards – but like usual, my hair was staying in its stubborn wavy style with its random cowlick at the top. Arthur found it cute, I found it freaking annoying…

He was still getting ready so I went downstairs to make us some breakfast, heading into the living room to get my calendar from the unit so I could eat my chocolate and find out what Arthur had planned for me next whilst I was waiting for the toast to pop (we had this awesome toaster that you could put four slices of bread into at once – cutting down the time it takes to make toast for two). I put the bread into the toaster and set the timer, pushing down the controls and waiting for it to pop.

I picked up my advent calendar, scanning over the doors and smiling as I found the one with the little number 3 written on – carefully, I dug my nail underneath the flap and pulled it open, chuckling as I realised that piece of chocolate was shaped like a snowman (the first day it was an angel, the day after was a choir boy). I picked it out of the plastic and ate it, taking out the note that had been hidden beneath it and unrolling the tiny scroll:

_Look out of the window at 12pm_.

"What?" I asked, rereading the note as if it would change and give me some further explanation. Looking up as Arthur walked into the room, he looked at me oddly when he noticed my confused expression.

"What's the matter, Love?" he asked me.

"What does this note mean?"

Moving over to me, he took the piece of paper from my hands and chuckled as he realised why I looked so confused. This only confused me further.

"Just as it says, Love," he said, smiling at me and sticking the paper into the front left-side pocket of my jeans. "Just look out of the window at 12."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

The note had been bothering me all day.

It was coming to the end of my shift – nearly 12pm, and I was starting to get a little edgy about what was going to happen. Arthur was at work so did that mean that he was going to send something to me or was there going to be something written in the snow…? I had no idea and everything was setting me off all day – the younger children had noticed that I hadn't been acting like myself and kept hugging me at every chance they could to get "bubbwy-Miss-Dones-ey" back.

I looked round as Emily, my shift-swap, came through the front door of the nursery so hurried over to her – Emily looking rather startled as I popped up in front of her.

"Amie, what's the matter?" she asked. "You look nervous…"

"Did you see anything or anyone outside of the nursery on your way in?" I asked.

"No, it's dead out there…"

"Okay…" I said, getting my coat on. I took in a deep breath then looked up at the clock: 12pm. Shaking my head, I berated myself for being so nervous – this was Arthur, he wouldn't do anything mean. This was a romantic thing so what was the worst that could happen?

Walking over to the window, I looked outside and smiled.

Arthur was stood outside bundled up as the snow was falling thicker and faster than it had done the day before, he was looking at the window of the nursery and smiling – the smile getting brighter as he saw me looking out at him. I got my bag from the staff room and clocked out, hurrying out onto the street whilst trying not to turn into Bambi as I went over to Arthur.

"I thought you were at work?" I asked, looking up at him happily but confusedly.

"I was, but I finished for the day and have come to take you to your next treat," Arthur replied, shifting his arm to signal me to hold it. I giggled a little, linking arms with him and walking through the village – my nose was turning cold and I could feel the snow crunching beneath my boots but it didn't seem to matter.

"Arthur, where are we going?" I questioned, looking around as we got into the shopping district. Then I realised the direction we were going – and soon, as we turned a left, I was greeted by a wonderful site.

He had taken me to my favourite restaurant, and it was decorated all over with tinsel and lights and even had trees outside getting covered with snow. I looked up at him and saw him looking at me with a soft expression.

"I'm taking you to lunch," he replied, kissing me on the head.

"This is my favourite place…" I smiled, letting him lead me inside. He winked at me, talking to the Maître'D who soon lead us along to a private booth away from prying eyes. I looked around, smiling at the romantic sites around me – the place had a warm glow around it and as I took my coat off and set it down beside me, I caught glimpse of Arthur watching me. He had a soft smile on his face, so I leant over the table and kissed him softly.

Arthur kissed me back, for once not getting bashful about me kissing him in public. When we pulled back, he smiled at me warmly and smoothed my cheek again. "You like the surprise then?"

"I love it," I replied, leaning against his hand. "Are they playing Michael Buble's Christmas album?"

"They are," Arthur said, nodding his head. His smile changed slightly. "I put in a request when I booked. I knew how much you love that album."

I blushed brightly, grinning – no one had ever gone to so much effort to make me happy before.

I was going to repay him at some point – he wasn't going to be the only one dishing out surprises.

_**Notes:**_

**I made sure to make this one a little longer :D**

**So. Much. Fluff.**

**Christmas is such a fluffy time of year, I even have fluffy socks on xD**

**Has anyone heard Michael Buble's Christmas album? That is one smooth singer… **

**_Tsuki – we open our presents on Christmas Day :) But that doesn't stop my younger brother and I from trying to get a tiny present to open. Despite being nearly 16 and 18, we are both children and wake up at like 3am on Christmas morning and end up just sitting in our rooms. Usually it's quiet TV whilst we wait to get our parents up, but this year it's Xbox Live and laptop xD_**

**My Mum finally got our advent calendars today – there have been next to none around where I live… Usually, we have the guarantee of quality from Cadbury's but there a literally no calendars… So I've now got a Disney Princess calendar (Belle, Cinderella and Rapunzel are on the front :3) and my brother has The Simpsons.**

**I'd dropped hints about Peppa Pig but this one's just as awesome :3**


	4. December 4th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Four**

**December 4****th**

I had never been totally honest about my relationship with my father and brother – not with any of my friends, and not even with Arthur. It was just something I had never been comfortable with talking about, but I knew that I would have to come clean about it all in the end…

I had woke up earlier than Arthur that morning, at about 5am, and knew that I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep. When I was younger I used to have this habit of being able to near enough hibernate through the winter, but since I met Arthur and became a bit more social than I was that habit soon changed to having an inability to stay asleep in the winter.

So, I carefully disentangled myself from Arthur and made my way downstairs – going straight into the living room to curl up on the sofa. I really didn't feel like watching television – if I had learnt anything from my time in the UK (one was how they write "learnt" not "learned"… Arthur's fault…) was that their breakfast news programs, even when they are made over to make them bright and wonderful, were always filled with doom and gloom. Honestly, even at this time of year there the presenters are sat looking like they want to hang themselves talking about how the economy is in trouble or about how so many people are going to die this Christmas because they can't properly heat their homes.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I care about these poor freezing people – but what can I do about it? They can't heat their homes because their utilities providers are money sucking leaches who only care about profits – I was stuck with wrapping up lots simply because on some days we just couldn't afford to put the heating on.

In the end, I turned the TV on anyway and put on a radio station instead. I liked the radio a lot more than TV, the presenters sounded genuinely entertaining as they laughed despite the early hour and the music was always something that I could listen to and enjoy.

And of course I had to turn on the station at its news hour:

'Harry Styles and Taylor Swift all loved up' – who gives a shit? If they were together then there's one more song for Taylor Swift's next album. 'Kate's expecting a baby' – congratulations, do you all really need to place bets on the poor kid's name?

Thankfully, the presenters all seemed to share my indifference with these stories. They had a quick discussion of each story then put on the next song, something that I was happy about – until I realised that they'd started playing the _Go Compare_ advert…

To tell everyone the truth, I'd had a bad dream the night before hence why I was awake so early. My hands were still shaking a little but it wasn't a bad dream with ghosts and monsters, well, not the types you'd normally find in a bad dream. It was more the ghosts of my past coming back to haunt me…

"Amelia?"

Jumping, I looked round and saw Arthur stood in the doorway – he looked half asleep still, his hair all ruffled more than usual. He came over and sat next to me on the sofa, putting his arm around me and kissing my head softly.

"Why are you down here all alone?" he asked.

"No reason…"  
"Amelia."

I sighed, looking down at my lap. "I had a bad dream last night…" I confessed, feeling his arm hold me closer to him and a little tighter too. "It was… true, which is why it made me go like this…"

"I'm sure that's not true," Arthur replied, kissing my head. I shook it though and looked up at him.

"I never told you the truth about my family…" I said, watching his eyebrows furrow. "We've never gotten along properly… The one person that I was closest to in the whole world was my Mom. She was a very skilled crafter – she used to make some pretty awesome toys and sell them for more than it cost her to buy the materials. But that meant that she was busy a lot of the time – I would go to her study and watch her make all these wonderful toys…

"But in those days, when I was 2, we used to live in a very hot place… It was pretty much like a desert there so we would get to play outside in the heat a lot. But because of Dad's job we moved to San Francisco way before we started school. Dad never wanted a daughter… He always wanted a son and because he got one first he was very surprised when Mom said that she was pregnant. When they found out I was a girl, he didn't want to know. He spent all his time with Matthew.

"When Mom died… everything fell apart. Dad started to drink a lot – he'd sober up for work and stuff, but for the time he wasn't at work he was drunk. Matthew started to get resentful to me – I was getting more attention at school, other family members were always asking after me at the funeral because I was the youngest. He hated that… And Dad started to yell at me a lot. When I was 10 years old, everything just got too much…

"Dad was drunk and started yelling at me again… He threw things, destroyed my favourite toy… He said it was because of me that Mom got that disease and died. He said if I hadn't been born then she'd still be here… When he left, Matthew came downstairs and had a go at me too for making Dad that angry… He spent 3 hours telling me everything that was wrong with me. And he was right… Since Mom had died and my only 2 remaining relatives I had to live with were acting so coldly to me, I started acting out. I'd skip school, get into fights…

"I had enough. I had nothing in that house. Literally nothing. So I just put my coat on, walked out of the front door in the middle of the night… and left. A 10 year old girl alone on the streets of San Francisco. The first place I went was my mother's grave – I apologised to her. I curled up against her headstone and sobbed… I was 10 and the two people who were meant to love me unconditionally had just said I was the worst thing to happen to the Earth. I truly believed that it was my fault she was dead, that everything was my fault… and they'd be happier without me…

"It was actually… this day that I'd run away… 14 years to the day… I was gone for a week… I was wandering around the streets of San Francisco, hiding in Golden Gate Park… Crossing the bridge was terrifying… Eventually, I was found by this nice police lady. She was so nice – she gave me a blanket, some warm food and drink. She took me home…

"Dad looked like he'd aged and Matthew actually looked happy to see me… They tried after that to make me feel welcome… but there were times when they just couldn't. So I kept myself locked away in my room. Matthew was protective of me – but more in that way that 'only I can do that to her'… So that's why I was glad you wanted to be my friend – you seemed to see something in me that I couldn't…

"When you left to go to university… that was the worst day of my life… Matt left too… I was alone with Dad and it was coming up for the anniversary of Mom's death… You know what he was like, a different woman every week… but no one compared to Mom to him… So he was getting pissed again… Drinking way too much… He laid into me… Verbally… He just… said awful things… I walked out of the room, got my laptop and found a place to rent cheaply and that was it. I packed up my stuff, left and I've not spoken to him or Matt since… You are literally the only family I have left in this world…"

I looked up at Arthur, tears in my eyes obscuring him slightly. He wiped my eyes and hugged me tightly, smoothing my back as I cried against him.

"Open your calendar…" he said.

"H-huh?" I asked, looking up at him again.

"Go open your calendar," Arthur said, kissing my head. I nodded, going over to the unit to get my calendar. I picked it up carefully and found the door for Number 4 and pulled it open, taking out the chocolate to eat and picking out the note that had been hidden again. I opened the tiny scroll again, reading the message:

_It's time for a reunion_.

I looked at Arthur – he was watching me cautiously, but I was so confused by what this could mean. He couldn't have known that I was going to have a nightmare like that… He glanced at the clock and froze a little when the doorbell rang.

"Arthur? What's going on?" I asked, watching him get up and go to the front door. I stayed where I was, setting the calendar down again and watching Arthur walk back into view but with someone following him. I looked up at this other man – he looked familiar but different, and as he looked back at me with an awkward smile I knew who this was.

"Amelia…" he said, stepping forwards.

"Daddy?"

Dad smiled a bit more, nodding. "Merry Christmas, Baby…"

I honestly had no idea how to react, simply looking between Dad and Arthur who was looking a little awkward. Dad looked healthy again – he was clean shaven, a healthy weight, his skin was clearer and he didn't smell of booze anymore. In an odd kind of way I was relieved to see him, so, instead of keeping hold of all the bitter feelings that were niggling away in the back of my mind, I walked over to him and hugged him. Dad blinked then hugged me tightly.

"I'm so sorry for everything that's happened…" he said, smoothing my head.

"You missed Mom…" I said, closing my eyes. "You shouldn't have done any of that… but you did… We can't change what's happened though…"

"When you left… I realised what a big mistake I had made," Dad said, sitting down with me on the sofa; Arthur sat in the arm chair nearby to give us some privacy but also to make sure he was still there in case I needed him. "You were and still are my little girl… I never should have treated you the way I did… That day, I was angry too… and stubborn… So I never went to see you… Matthew told me I was being an idiot when he came to visit one day, so we went to go see you… But you weren't there. The landlord said you'd moved away with a guy. So we looked everywhere for any source of where you'd be, and I never stopped even when Matthew went to go back to his home… I was close to giving up until I got a call from Arthur… That boy's good for you," he chuckled a little, "he seems to be taking care of you better than I ever did…"

"I love him," I smiled, looking over to Arthur who smiled at me. "You and Matthew were always important to me," I fiddled with the locket around my neck that my mother had given me. Dad looked at it and gently took it in his hands.

"Can I…?" he asked, waiting for me to nod before opening it. On the left side was a picture of Arthur and me, my arms around his neck as he laughed because I was dangling on his back and kissing his cheek. The right side held a picture of my family before Mom died… A family portrait which looked honestly happy. I looked up at Dad as he looked between the two images, his dark blue meeting my light blue. "You've grown up so much…"

"You definitely look healthier than I remember…" I said, smiling a little. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, Baby," he said, kissing my head. "And I always have despite every fowl thing I've ever said to you… Can you ever forgive me?"

"Baby steps," I smiled. Dad nodded and smiled back.

I don't know how he did it, but slowly Arthur was making sure that I knew I really wasn't as alone as I thought.

_**Notes:**_

**Wow, an even earlier upload than yesterday!**

**AND AN UPDATE ON A TUESDAY!**

**WOW!**

**So, tragic family background and then forgiveness.**

**And I got in some news stories I'd heard today :D Ahhh, currency ;)**


	5. December 5th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Five**

**December 5****th**

I guess I can be could be classed as a Twitter whore. I was constantly using that site, my cell phone usually getting used to access the Internet whilst I'm on the go. It was also a pretty handy tool at work as the entirety of the staff at the day care had Twitter so we could just tweet to each other if we needed help – even our boss had Twitter and used it to send us alerts if we were needed in another part of the day care centre.

We had to be very careful about what we said about work on the site, but I never had anything bad to say about it so that wasn't a real worry to me.

I didn't use Instagram though, which a lot of the other staff members found peculiar – I mean, I could use it if I wanted to but I didn't really see the appeal of it. Any pictures I took could have been edited in Photoshop so…

I had been in a rush that morning – I woke up late because after Dad went home at lunchtime so I could go to work, Arthur ended up taking me out to dinner at KFC just as something quick because I had to make up my hours by staying behind and doing some cleaning… That sucked balls…

I really didn't want to be late again that morning so I ended up just giving my hair a quick wash and leaving it up in a ponytail, dousing myself in deodorant and perfume before putting my uniform on and heading out of the door. I only just managed to remember my keys and phone; however I never had my calendar or took my iPod. I just made my way through the snow as quick as I could – Arthur was still in bed as he didn't have work until later on that day so I had tried not to wake him up though I was secretly blaming it all on him.

I yelped as I slipped up on the snow at one point, bracing myself as I landed in a big pile of snow. It puffed up around me and covered me in white, and already I could feel it melting through my coat and jeans already. Luckily, I didn't have that much farther to go so I got up and brushed myself off before continuing my trek round the corner and into the day care centre.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

My mind kept wandering off to what had happened the day before – Arthur had stayed with me the whole time whilst I talked to Dad, but he wasn't really needed that much. Dad talked to me about what had been happening over the years I had been gone, explaining to me how he had stopped drinking before he went to look for me that day I had moved out. It sounded as though he had been through a lot – his work had caught wind of his alcoholism and had ordered for him to get help or they would fire him, this was at the same time that I had walked out so he was already in the frame of mind that he wanted to change his ways. I had tipped him over the edge by walking out as I had, so he managed to keep his job but he could never find me.

He told about how Matthew was doing – apparently Matthew had started to get a lot of work during his apprenticeship which had now lead him to get a lot of business building things for people and decorating homes. Whilst he was in that part of the UK, he had met a nice girl called Sofia – she was from Ukraine – and they had started to go out and had been together nearly 6 years; they were living together and were pretty serious.

Dad wouldn't tell me anything more than that which annoyed me, but I guess it wasn't his story to tell. It was Matthew's if he ever decided to get in contact with me now that Dad knew where I was. I'd like to meet Sofia because she sounded like a very nice girl – she was the oldest of 3 siblings apparently (the middle child was a Russian boy called Ivan and their younger sister was called Natalya). Dad made the suggestion that she had rather big, natural breast but I didn't believe him because… well, he had a tendency to be a bit of a pervert…

Another thing that I was happy to hear about was the fact that my father had managed to find himself a decent woman that he genuinely loved. He was going to bring her along one day but they didn't know when she could come up because of their works keeping them both busy. The way he described her was so poetic, I was starting to question just how much had changed in my absence - she had hair 'the colour of a ripe cherry', eyes 'as dark as a bar of milk chocolate' and was 'curvy in all the right places'. That generally meant tits and ass, but I was going to give my father the benefit of the doubt for once.

I was brought out of my thoughts when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, retrieving it to realise that I had been sent something through Twitter again:

_ DoubleOKirkland - StarSpangledAmie You rushed off quick earlier_

"Oh, Arthur," I chuckled – he really did have a random username, but I guess his obsession with James Bond was a little less dorky than Harry Potter. He was going to have his username Harry Potter related but then changed his mind when he watched Skyfall…

_StarSpangledAmie - DoubleOKirkland I woke up late… :/ #DamnYou_

_ DoubleOKirkland – StarSpangledAmie Why damn me?! :( You didn't open your calendar_

_ StarSpangledAmie - DoubleOKirkland You normally wake me up :( #LoveYouReally I didn't open it cos I was in a rush!_

_ DoubleOKirkland - StarSpangledAmie You are a nitwit sometimes :) Just open it when you get home #LoveYouToo_

I chuckled and put my phone back into my pocket, smiling as one of the younger children, Molly, toddled over to me – she had a smile on her face and reached her hands up to be picked up. I did so and smiled as she nuzzled against my shoulder.

"Amie, do you haf a pwince?" she asked me.

"A prince?"

"Yeah! Like Pwince Chawming who come in and kiss you and take you away to a magical kingdom!"

I smiled at her and bounced her a little. "I do, as a matter of fact," I said, amused by her increasing grin. "His name's Arthur."

"Cool!" she grinned. "So you mawwied?"

"No… No we're not married, but we do live together," I smiled.

"Oh…" Molly said, looking slightly disappointed. "But one day? Cos you could have a baby and be really happy!"

"I'm happy now," I chuckled. "But yeah, maybe one day."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

When I got home just after lunchtime, I knew that Arthur would still be at work – he did have a later start than me after all. I didn't really like being in the house by myself for long… It reminded me too much of how things used to be at home – when Dad and Matt would go to the cinema without telling me and I would wander around the house wondering where everyone was…

I went straight through to the kitchen once my damp shoes and coat were discarded and hung near the radiator to dry off – putting the kettle on to boil the water so I could have some hot chocolate. Whilst that was doing its thing, I wandered into the living room and got my advent calendar to see why Arthur wanted me to open this door so badly.

I tucked my nail under the cardboard again and pulled the door open, eating the chocolate again and finding another note:

_Look at your iPod. Find the folder AK+AJ. Listen._

Now this was interesting… I always had my iPod with me so how did he manage to do that? He'd made this calendar a while ago too… so it couldn't have been when I forgot it that morning…

I found my iPod lying on the coffee table in the living room, so picked it up and took it over to the stereo nearby – plugging it in and finding the folder.

"Oh, Arthur…"

Inside the folder was 40 songs – ones we had danced to, ones we had sung to, ones that we so close to our relationship it was like they were written for us… I sat down and listened to the songs – I had tears in my eyes as I remembered all of the happy (and sometimes sad) memories that were held by the notes…

Molly would have said that my prince was doing his job right, making me so happy I cried… I was determined to pay him back somehow, but I still couldn't think of how…

_**Notes:**_

**Sorry to start the story off on such a bum not. But I'm getting pissed off with people ignoring me. When I say "don't download this" I mean "DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS". But 5 people ignored me and did it anyway.**

**Hence why this chapter was a bit shorter. I knew I needed one out today but those people put me in such a foul mood it was difficult to find the inspiration to put this out there.**

**Anyways, now my rant is over let's focus on the happy!**

**I am really tempted to make Amelia twitter account :3 I've seen Hetalia "bots" on Twitter but they always post the same things – this one would literally just talk to anyone and anything! Urgh, conflicted mind… If you want me to do that then go ahead and say so! :D**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless!**

**_EDIT:_  
**

**The trolls are hungry guys, beware.**

**_EDIT 2:_  
**

**You guys flatter me so much :D**


	6. December 6th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Six**

**December Sixth**

You automatically know when you're starting to get sick. It's not just the coughing and the spluttering that gets to you, it's that nauseating feeling when your head starts to spin or you breath gets caught in your chest.

Those were the feelings that I was starting to get – and it was only since I lived in this country that I started to catch colds or the flu. It must have been because of Arthur's crappy immune system – the man would walk around with a near constant cold like there was nothing wrong with him.

On the occasions I did get ill, I got hit bad. He would always tend to me and make sure that I felt better, but there was always the odd comment thrown in about how he could handle it better than I could. Well, of course you can handle it better, Arthur – you are used to getting sick. I, on the other hand, remained perfectly healthy until I moved to the UK.

He always said that it was my diet that caused my problems – how much fatty foods I ate and that it may not be affecting my figure but it was certainly starting to take its toll on my internal organs. I always just rolled my eyes and ignored him when he started talking about healthy eating – I ate plenty healthy, I just liked having the odd candy or KFC from time to time.

I was lucky that morning though – because of the terrible weather, my boss sent me a Tweet saying not to come as they weren't going to open. I was still going to get paid but I needn't come in. This was fine by me as it meant that I got to spend a bit longer snuggling in bed with Arthur.

He was spooning me, his arms wrapped around me from behind and his face pressed lightly against my neck. He had me pulled right up against him, his hands nonchalantly resting on my stomach. I had to admit that I really enjoyed the feeling of his hands gently smoothing my stomach – it was a soothing motion, a caring action that held so many connotations. He nuzzled against my neck, causing me to hum quietly – I loved it when he did anything to my neck, and sure enough he started to press light kisses against my skin.

"Arthur," I hummed, turning over in his arms and looking up at him. He smiled down at me and pressed a tender kiss to my lips which I happily returned. He continued to kiss me, gently rolling us so that he was lying on top of me. I welcomed his weight, wrapping my arms around his neck and making sure that he stayed close to me. Arthur smiled against my lips, pressing down on me as he pulled away from my lips and started to kiss down my neck. Tilting my head to the side, I started to breathe deeply as he sucked softly on my neck leaving a faint red mark. I threaded my fingers into his messy hair, looking up at him as he hovered above me – a smile on his face as he looked down at me.

"You look beautiful," he said, leaning down and bumping his nose to mine. I giggled and rubbed our noses together.

"You look handsome," I replied, spreading my legs a bit so that he could lie between them. I could feel him pressing against me through our pyjamas, and I knew that he had a lot to offer me at that moment. However, before we could get into anything deeper, the alarm clock on the bedside table began to ring – causing Arthur to groan and flop his head down onto my chest. I chuckled and kissed the top of his head, running my fingers through his hair.

"Maybe later, yeah?" I smiled. He huffed and looked up at me with an almost pouting expression. I laughed and kissed his pout. "Come on, cheer up."

"Fine," he said, chuckling a little. "It's you that does this to me though."

"I know," I grinned. "It's a gift."

Shaking his head, he got up and turned off the alarm clock before heading into the bathroom. I laid back in the bed and closed my eyes, my arm draping over them to keep the light from hitting them. I was just going to sleep for a bit longer so that I wouldn't get too sick too soon…

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

It was no good…

I was definitely ill…

In the time that Arthur had gone to work I had been to the bathroom twice to throw up… I ended up getting a bowl of water in the end to beside our bed because every little movement was starting to make me feel worse – my head kept spinning and I was getting that tight feeling in my throat at the beginning of my chest you get when you're gonna throw up.

I'd brought my calendar upstairs to see what my next prize would be – and even attempted to have some of the chocolate, but that ended poorly... Arthur had left another note but this time it was just a picture of a guitar and some music notes.

I felt too ill to even begin to come up with ideas as to what that could mean, so simply laid in bed and played with my phone and 3DS. I kept sending Tweets to girls at work saying about how ill I was – they all kept sending me cute pictures and replies to try and keep my spirits up so I Tweeted a picture of the game I was playing to try and get a laugh out of them.

What? _Super Scribblenauts_ is an awesome game!

I looked at my phone again as the Tweet alert went off, loading the app so that I could see who had just got in contact with me.

_ DoubleOKirkland - StarSpangledAmi why didn't you tell me you were feeling ill?_

I smiled a little, taking a moment to have a coughing fit before sending a reply.

_ StarSpangledAmi - DoubleOKirkland I wasn't feeling that bad earlier but it just hit me when you got out of bed :( _

_ DoubleOKirkland - StarSpangledAmi So this is my fault? ;)_

_ StarSpangledAmi - DoubleOKirkland Yeah. Yeah it is :3_

_ DoubleOKirkland - StarSpangledAmi Well, I'll be home soon so just relax and I'll make it all better :)_

_ StarSpangledAmi - DoubleOKirkland Okay xx See ya soon xx_

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

30 minutes later, Arthur walked into the bedroom. His nose wrinkled a little at the smell of sickness but he went over to me and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Hey, Love," he said softly, placing his hand on my forehead. "Oh, Love, you're burning up…"

"I know," I coughed. "It's okay though… I usually get sick for just a day and then I'm fine." I gave him a small smile so he kissed my forehead.

"I know, but I'm going to keep an eye on you okay?" Arthur smiled, smoothing my hair. "Do you have enough water?"

"Yeah," I smiled, watching him go to replace the water in my bowl. I leant over and got the glass of water from my bedside table, sipping the drink to keep myself hydrated. Placing the bowl down beside my side of the bed again, Arthur sat down and smoothed his thumb over my hand again.

"I doubt you've opened your calendar, right?" he said.

"Actually, I did," I said, chuckling a little. "I couldn't eat the chocolate but I saw the note."

"It's lucky I chose what I did," he smiled. "Today and tomorrow's surprises were meant to be the other way round but luckily this way works better."

"What are you planning?" I asked.

"Well, you need to sleep and I know what normally sends you off," he said, reaching under the bed and pulling out a guitar. I blinked, smiling at him a little as he started to play a soft tune. I recognised it, but couldn't quite put my finger on what it was until he started to sing.

"Standing close to me, close enough to reach, perfect time to tell her," he sang softly. The rest of the lyrics started to blur away but the music stayed with me as I closed my eyes and listened.

I can't remember what happened next – I must have fallen asleep… All I can remember was how soft and sweet his voice was and how romantic his song choice was. His surprise was serenading, and that made me feel better than any medicine could do.

_**Notes:**_

**HEY GUYS XD**

**A shorter chapter today cos I felt ill myself and well, I got Super Scribblenauts and want to play it :D**

**But to you all, I love you and your support! I was in a very bad mood yesterday until some of you talked to me and you really cheered me up! IrishMaid, I replied to your review on my Tumblr :) Just, thank you – you're great.**

**If you know the song Arthur was singing then thumbs up to you :D**

**OH AND GUYS – I MADE AMELIA'S TWITTER (hence the slight change on the username on here). It is StarSpangledAmi so if you want to go stalk and talk to her then go ahead :D**


	7. December 7th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Seven**

**December Seventh**

Our house was situated in a very awkward part of the village – it was a nice house, singled out and not attached to any other. It had a large front garden and an even bigger back garden which backed onto a forest. A fence had been built to keep people out if they happened to be wandering around the woods behind out house or any animals that happened to be roaming around.

That was a little scary on some evenings because the woods were very large and the whole neighbourhood was very natural – trees and bushes and flowers and such. Well, not so many flowers anymore because of the season change but you get my point.

I was walking home alone in the dark that day. I had woken up late because of how ill I had felt yesterday – it was just as I had predicted, I had the bug and then it was gone. I felt totally okay except for a slight cold but that was something that could be dealt with easily. Arthur had had to go somewhere for another story – I hated that he worked in a daily newspaper but it was bringing in a substantial amount of money so I wasn't going to complain about it out loud. Because of his absence again, that left me with nothing to do for the day. I had received another Tweet from work saying that they were going to remain shut until after the Christmas holidays because of how bad the weather was becoming so that meant that I was going to be getting an extended holiday for the time being.

But this now left me with a hell of a lot of free time and hardly any way to spend it. So that lead me to the fairly obvious conclusion that I was going to get a bit of Christmas shopping done.

I had a few presents sorted – Arthur always got me 3 gifts because he had family in Devon to send gifts too. He had 28 year old Scott, who was married to a French girl called Ambre – they had a 4 year old daughter (Scarlet) and another little boy on the way; then there was 27 year old Bryn and his wife from New Zealand, Ruby and their son 2 year old son Jack; 26 year old Aednat and her husband from the Philippines Joshua and their year old twin daughters Ava and Jinnie; Aednat's twin Ryan and his wife from the Seychelles Rochelle; and finally 17 year old Peter and his girlfriend from Latvia Regina.

Naturally he wasn't going to buy for Regina but he still had everyone else to take into consideration. That along with his mom and dad. For the whole time of us living together in Somerset, I only had him to buy for. What with my father seeming to hate me and my brother resenting my very existence… I had no grandparents, my mom was an only child and my dad's older brother had died in a car accident when they were teenagers so I never got to meet him. It was a very sad feeling knowing that I had only one person in the world, but now that things were starting to turn around for me and my dad I was happy that I had one more person to buy a present for.

I was going to get Matthew something too, just to show that I had no hard feelings towards him. Yeah, everything he had said to me still stung like salt getting dabbed into a fresh wound but I was a different person now. It was time to move on.

So I had gone into town to attempt to pick them out some presents, but I soon found that it was going to be pretty difficult – how do you pick a present for someone you hadn't spoken to for 6 years? I soon gave up in favour of waiting to learn more about them in this time before buying them something that they could possibly hate.

I ended up wandering into Ann Summers. For those of you unaware of what Ann Summers is, it's a store from Britain that specialises in sex toys and lingerie.

I think you might understand now what I was planning for Arthur.

No, I didn't buy any sex toys… But I did get some lingerie…

It was red and practically see-through but I kinda really liked it and knew that with the design it had and how it looked when I held it up against me, Arthur would get a kick out of it too.

However, I had been out all day and that meant that it was dark outside by the time I started to make my way home. I didn't really like it because I was alone with sexy clothes in one bag, my purse over my shoulders and some regular shopping in the other bags…

At one point I swear I saw Slender Man but that was just a trick of the light…

However, as I turned and kept on walking away, I swear something was following me. I could feel this presence behind me, stalking me as I made my way towards my home. Suddenly, I felt a hand press against my shoulder and I screamed in shock, turning quickly to see Arthur's grinning face looking at me.

"I could kill you sometimes!" I pouted, turning and continuing to walk away – I needed to put the lingerie away. Arthur followed me up to the front door and waited for me to open it, staying oddly quiet as if he did know that he was in trouble. "Don't ever sneak up on me in the dark like that again…"

"I'm sorry," he said, turning me round gently to kiss my pout. "I won't."

"Good," I smiled, running upstairs to hide all my shopping. Arthur didn't follow me but he didn't go anywhere else either. I knew that he was waiting for me to get back downstairs so I quickly hid the bags in the bottom of my wardrobe and went back down to him.

I knew why he was waiting – my advent calendar surprise was pretty simple that day, he was going to take me ice skating like we had done on our first date.

"Ready to go?" he asked me.

"More than."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

I was like Bambi but I didn't care - I was having more fun than I had had for a long time. Arthur was steady on the ice and guided me around, holding my waist and slowly spinning with me to the music that was being played.

The ice rink had been set up outside in the middle of town centre as it had been for as long as we had lived there and longer. It was just like how it had been on the night we had our first date, and every time Arthur looked into my eyes or smiled or anything I could feel all those emotions I felt on that evening.

After everything he had been doing for me lately, I really wanted my surprise to him to good too – but I knew it would be very miniscule in comparison to what he'd been doing for me. But then again, he always had been soppy.

My surprise was I was going to offer him the chances to try to create that little girl he'd always wanted.

_**Notes:**_

**Shorter again but tbh, it's gonna be a long story and it's only a little Christmas-y fic so :)**

**Ehehehe, so Ann Summers… Yup. Not gonna lie I had a quick peek for some inspiration type things and found this:**

www. annesummers (dot com) / p / phoebe-red-cami-set / 18sepeas1017044

**So yeah, that's what Amelia's bought… Why not add a little R18 to your lives. **


	8. December 8th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Eight**

**December Eighth**

**(R18 Warning)**

To tell you the truth, I was very nervous about what I was planning to do that day. So many things could go wrong and they were all going off like little alarms in my brain – what if he actually didn't want to have a kid with me, what if he thought that we weren't ready to have a child, what if all this was just some twisted way to get out the relationship we had…?

Stupid things that I really shouldn't have been thinking but were there because my brain just liked to fuck with my emotions in ways that I couldn't seem to control.

Arthur had been called into work very early that morning, and when he accidentally woke me up at 4am he was talking about random things like something was printed wrong in his story or someone had lost a photo or something like that. I was too close to getting back to sleep again to really care to listen. So when he had left I had fallen to sleep again and woken up at 7:30am because my body clock always told me that that was the time it wanted me to be awake, and by any means necessary it would make me get up at that time.

He had left a note on my bedside table to tell me that he'd be back around 12ish because apparently what had happened was a major problem and would affect all of the papers that they were going to be publishing for the evening edition. Because I had literally nothing else to do with my time, I went to the bathroom and had a shower to try and boost myself up – cleaning myself seemed to do the trick (and Arthur didn't really let me do the housework because he liked things in certain ways…).

I didn't get dressed though - instead I just put on a dressing gown and some thick socks before sitting at my vanity table and putting my damp hair into curlers to add to the volume it usually had anyway. I then went downstairs and had some breakfast and opened my calendar.

This day was a very simple thing he had left for me – simple, but incredibly sweet. He had created a whole list of things that he had learnt about me and things that he loved, but he had labelled it as 'part one' so there was going to a second part at some point and I didn't understand how there could be so many things he loved about me.

After I had had my breakfast, I went upstairs to finish getting ready – Arthur would be home in an hour and a half as I had taken my time downstairs. I put on my new lingerie, smoothing it down and looking at my reflection in the mirror – even if I say so myself, it looked pretty good, you could see my curves well and the colour was very vibrant. Once that was sorted, I finished off doing my hair and took in my whole appearance; I was very happy with what I was seeing and just as I finished I heard the front door open and close.

"Amie, I'm home," I heard Arthur call out. "Amie?"

"I'm up here, Arthur," I smiled, standing back beside the bed. I heard him make his way upstairs, so tried to push back the nervous twist that I felt in the pit of my stomach. Watching carefully as the bedroom door opened, I took in his expression as he caught sight of me: at first he looked stressed, but then as he took in my outfit he went through a transition of surprise to arousal. I stepped towards him slowly, smirking a little – I wasn't going to tell him my plan just yet, only when it came to the protection part.

"Surprised?" I asked.

"Very…" he replied, his tone a little deeper.

"Well," I said, smiling submissively, "you've been treating me so nicely these past few days; I wanted to give you a little treat in return."

He looked me up and down as I wrapped my arms around his neck, putting his own arms around my waist and holding me against him. No words were exchanged from that point, Arthur choosing to kiss me instead.

It was hot and dominant, one hand remaining on the small of my back to keep my nearly-naked body pressed against his as the other made its way to my hair to bury his fingers into my curls. He bit at my bottom lip, licking it and sucking at it to gain access to my mouth – so I willingly opened up to him, letting his tongue slip inside and play with my own. I hummed softly, allowing him to steer my backwards to the bed – falling back onto it with him above me.

The kiss continued, getting hotter and deeper with every second – my legs had arched so that they framed Arthur as he laid between them, his lower body pressing to mine as his hands found the peepholes in the breast area of lingerie. His mouth parted from mine, our breaths coming out in harsh pants – but he soon connected with my skin again to start attacking my neck with kisses, licks, sucks and bites. I tilted my head to side, moaning softly as he continued those motions whilst playing with my nipples. One hand strayed from my breast down my stomach and to the red panties that came with the lingerie, slipping under the fabric. I gasped slightly as he started to tease me, arching slightly as he rubbed me before slipping one of his fingers inside.

"Arthur," I moaned, rolling my hips slightly to get more of the feeling as he added another finger and started to move them. I couldn't help but let out another moan, reaching up to stroke behind his ear with the tips of my fingers – an area that I had learnt to be quite sensitive to him. He moaned along with me, thrusting his fingers a bit quicker and causing me to jolt suddenly as a hot sensation flowed through me. Despite the shortness that was forming in my breath and the shakiness of my hands, I started to take off Arthur's clothes – starting with his shirt so I could run my hands over his taut torso.

He pulled his hand away from me to pull the panties away and throw them somewhere across the room, unbuttoning his trousers and pulling them off too and leaving him leaning above me in only his boxers. I could see the bulge that had formed underneath the fabric, a little bit of dampness seeping through which I knew was pre-cum.

I could tell that he really didn't want to wait, but his own stubbornness to make sure that I was okay first was holding him back.

"Do you want me to use a condom?" he asked, looking down at me. Here it came…

"No," I said, smiling up at him. He looked slightly confused for a moment.

"Have you been taking your pill?"

"No," I said again, watching his confusion grow. I smiled though and smoothed his cheek. "You can use a condom if you want, but… I'm not using my pill for a while. I've not been using it for a while. I… I know things will be okay and that we're strong, and… if I were to get pregnant…"

He clicked on at that sentence. "You want to have a child with me?"

Blushing, I nodded and waited for him to jump off of me and hurry off. But instead he leant down and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. "I want to have a child with you too," he said.

"So we're gonna try?" I asked, looking up at him with a smile. He nodded and smiled back, pressing another kiss to my lips as he took his boxers off and then the rest of my lingerie. He spread my legs gently and settled between them, continuing to kiss me as he slowly pressed into me. I gasped against his mouth and held onto him as he pressed in fully, wrapping my legs around his waist and waiting for myself to adjust to him again.

When I nodded he finally started to move, pulling back almost all the way out and thrusting into me. I moaned his name as he moaned mine, moving with him as we made love.

When it was over, we were both taken over by a joint force of bliss – it was a fantastic feeling, lying there with him on top of me. Our breaths were coming out in pants and as we laid there totally connected, I knew that things from now one were going to be very different.

_**Notes:**_

**TAKE THAT 50 SHADES.**

**This was 50 Shades of UKUS.**

**You have no idea how freaking difficult this was to write OTL…..**

**Oh, and I added the (R18 Warning) bit at the beginning just in case people wanted to skip this chapter and wait for tomorrow's instead of reading smut. However, if you were searching for a story in the "M Rated" tag then clearly you were looking for some r18 type things.**

**Anyways, I hope you are enjoying the story so far :) Only 17 chapters left :D **

**(Don't forget on Christmas Eve (24****th**** for those who celebrate at a different time) there will be 2 updates)**


	9. December 9th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Nine**

**December Ninth**

When I woke up the next morning, all I felt was the warmth of Arthur's bare body pressed up against mine. His arms were wrapped around my waist, spooning me once again – he had me pulled right up against him, his chin resting on my shoulder so that his head leant against mine.

I really enjoyed it when he got that way with me, so intimate and open. It was refreshing, as sometimes he could be rather shut off about how he was feeling. He still had that frame of mind that if he said something wrong it would ruin everything or he was just surprised that I was still his girlfriend.

It was endearing, really, to think that he was still so insecure about things like that when I was obviously not going to leave. I hoped that he understood that now that I was trying for a baby with him, but you never really knew with Arthur – he might still have those doubts niggling away in his head.

He was a nerd in school, but not one of those conventional "do this do that dress properly" type nerds with the big glasses. No, he went through a phase when he was quite the punk. He was and still is brilliantly smart, but the way he dressed and how he acted nearly got him kicked out of school a fair few times. He would backchat the teachers and other classmates, and a fair few of them hated him because he got the highest scores in every test and still acted so cynical about the world and the people in it.

But he was always really kind to me. He was never mean to me which is why people used to take the piss out of me a lot. I was the crush of the walking disaster… I didn't pay any attention to them though – Arthur was not a walking disaster and he's proved most of them wrong. Most of those people never went to college or University, there somewhere else in this country living off of benefits with 5 kids and a wreck of a life.

He proved his worth and is doing what he loves.

Behind me, he shifted slightly and nuzzled the back of my neck – I could tell that he was having a dirty dream from how his body was starting to move against mine. He was slowly getting harder against my back, which meant that he was going to need some help sorting himself out when he woke up if things continued the way they were. So gently I turned over in his arms and kissed him, smiling as he opened his eyes slowly to look at me.

"Amie?"

"Who else would it be?" I smiled. He kissed me again, smiling into it.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

Arthur had put the very first poem he had ever written for me inside the calendar this time. It was a cheesy yet romantic little piece of writing that still made me smile when I reread it all these years later. He had put a lot of effort into it and when I found him getting dressed in the bedroom I gave him a big kiss as a thank you.

He had chuckled at how sweet I was finding everything, telling me that everything he was doing I deserved. I didn't understand just how I could deserve to be spoiled so much but I wasn't going to complain – everything he was doing was just so perfect and thoughtful…

We had decided that we were going to get a bit more of our Christmas shopping done that day, seeing as it was Sunday and the shops would be closing earlier. We had nothing else to do so it seemed like a reasonable thing to do – we had food to get, all the presents for his family. We were going to leave the presents for my brother and father until after I'd got to know them a bit better, but when that would be I didn't know.

We set off into the snow together just after lunch – we hadn't eaten so Arthur had promised to take me to get some food once we were in town. That was the first thing we went to do, looking around and smiling as we found a cosy little café tucked away on the edge of the town centre. It wasn't very busy but there were enough people inside to create that nice low humming sound that happens when a group of people are muttering to each other.

Sitting down at a table, Arthur waved a waitress over to order us some hot chocolate, tea and some hot sandwiches – I watched as the woman walked away with our order written down on her notepad before looking at Arthur across the table and smiling. He was watching me with an odd expression that I couldn't quite understand – it was happy, that much I could tell, but there was some other emotion hidden within the look that I just couldn't pick out.

"What made you decide that you wanted to have a child?" he asked me all of a sudden.

"Huh?"

"What made you decide you wanted to have a kid?"

I looked at him and raised my eyebrows a little. "I don't really know," I admitted. "We've been together for 10 years, I love you, but I kept getting those worries like _what if he changes his mind_… But then I ignored all that and before you gave me that calendar I slowly stopped taking the pills… And I was getting more confident with every day so decided to let you decide."

"I'm glad you did," Arthur smiled. "I've wanted a child with you for a long time, it's nice to know that you definitely want to do that too. I admit that I've had my doubts too, but everyone does when they're in a relationship. It's just how things happen, especially when we've been in our relationship since we were in school with people teasing and generally being moronic about it. But we're both adults, we have a home and good wages to be able to support a child and ourselves. I'd die before I let anything happen to you or that child and I'll be with you on this every step of the way."

Smiling, I leant over the table and gave him a quick kiss before out food and drinks were placed down before us. "You don't know just how much that really means to me, Arthur," I smiled, sipping my hot chocolate and burning my tongue a little. It was okay though, I did it so often that I was nearly immune to it.

"You deserve it."

_**Notes:**_

**A quick one today because… yeah… I had no clue lol**

**It was more a follow up and a treat and an explanation really.**

**Just not been in a very happy mood today despite getting some really good news. It made me happy but depressed me at the same time… which is really selfish of me but it's how I feel…**

**Anyways, more tomorrow**


	10. December 10th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Ten**

**December Tenth**

We tried again when we got home from the shops… and then again later in the evening. I don't know what it was about it, but now that the sex was aiming towards something it felt more appealing than ever. I'm sure Arthur wasn't going to complain about it – he was such a pervert sometimes but I loved him.

When I woke up the next morning, I could feel his hands resting against my bare stomach – he was smoothing it gently but I didn't know if he was awake or not. I wanted to turn over and find out but I remained the same as when I was asleep, allowing the motion to continue. It was nice, a motion that I knew he had been wanting to do for a long time. I wanted more now than ever to know if I was pregnant or not – but sadly I wouldn't be able to find out for a while.

I'd done some reading online about when to check and one site I'd found said that the earliest you can check and get a reading is 'seven days after ovulation'. I'd been timing everything perfectly so by my calculations, the time I'd be able to start checking would be the fifteenth… but the results wouldn't be quite as accurate. So I'd agreed with myself that I'd check on the twentieth so that I'd given myself enough time.

Finally, I turned over in Arthur's arms and smiled as I saw his green eyes looking at me with slight surprise – he had thought I was asleep and started to do the motion because he was awake. I chuckled softly and kissed him, smiling as Arthur's arms wrapped around me tighter.

"You were awake that whole time?" he asked, looking down at me as he rolled on top of me. Nodding, I laughed as he started to tickle me –flailing slightly and begging him to stop. "Never!" he grinned, tickling me further. He stopped when he realised that I was finding it hard to breathe so let me go and sat back – letting me calm down enough to be able to lean up on my arms and smile at him. In the process, I took in his bare body – taking a little longer than necessary to look at every aspect of him.

"So, what surprise have you got lined up for me today?" I asked, finally looking at his face.

"Well, you have to open your calendar first," Arthur said, smiling. "But the surprise should be here in an hour."

"Be here?" I asked, getting off of the bed and moving over to my dresser where I'd left the calendar. I opened the door that said '10' and ate the chocolate, pulling the note out and blinking.

_You've had one reunion… It's time for another._

Slowly I turned and looked back at Arthur, he was still sat on the bed looking at me with a faint nervous expression.

"Does this mean what I think it does?" I asked.

"Let's go have a shower," he said in response, getting up and walking over to me – he took the calendar and note from my hands and set them down on the table, pulling me to the bathroom before I could protest. I knew he wasn't going to tell me what was going on, but I had a pretty good idea.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

An hour later I was sat in the living room bouncing in my seat - I didn't like have an idea about what was going to happen but not knowing just what was going to happen… It annoyed me because I had a habit of playing scenarios out in my head and usually they ended up with very unhappy endings which then worried more than the actual thing that I knew.

It also made me tend to babble a lot in very annoying nervous bouts which I think Arthur had now grown immune to somehow – they managed to annoy me though, like one side of me was trying to scratch its way out by making me talk a hundred miles an hour whilst the other side of me just sits there shaking it's head and face-palming.

Arthur was reading a book in his arm chair by the window, but every so often I could tell that he was looking up to see if it was time yet.

Then the doorbell rang.

He smiled at me and motioned for me to go get the door, so I nodded nervously and went to the hallway. I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door, blinking when I saw who was there.

He was more mature than I remembered him, his blonde hair tied back in a loose pony tail as he'd still not got it cut. He had different glasses but on his face he also wore an awkward smile.

"Matthew," I said, smiling a bit more than he was.

"Hi, Amie," he said. He seemed startled for a moment as I stepped forward and hugged him tightly, but he returned my hug and kissed the top of my head. We parted to get back into the warm, and after I'd shut the door I hung his coat up and led him into the living room. "Too be honest, I wasn't expecting that type of greeting…"

"I honestly didn't know how I was going to react," I admitted, sitting down with him. "I mean, we didn't exactly part on very good terms did we…?"

"Which was all my fault," he said, looking at me. "I thought that when Arthur called me the other day, he was going to be really angry with me… But he didn't know any of what I'd said to you… He just knew we'd had a falling out… Why did you never tell him?"

"Because it wouldn't have done any good," I replied, shaking my head. "What was the point in telling him something that had happened 3 years before? You said things to me before you left to do your apprenticeship, Arthur had left to go to university and I was left alone with Dad. I ended up walking out and never going back."

"I didn't mean any of what I said," Matthew said, shaking his head. He looked me in the eyes and I could tell he was being sincere. "I love you, Amelia. You're my little sister. You bugged me from time to time, but I never hated you the way I made out… I was just jealous of how popular you were and how much Mom used to faun over you…"

"You had all of Dad's attention even before Mom died," I said. "You never had to join in when he started to yell at me how it was my fault she was dead."

Matthew nodded and sighed. "I was such a dick back then," he said. "I spent 3 hours straight pointing out everything I thought was a flaw of yours… Who would do that? I'm sorry for everything I put you through… But I want to make things right again."

"I know," I smiled. "Dad was here the other day; I assume he told you what I said."

Nodding, Matthew smiled back at me. "You're a lot more mature than I thought you'd be…" he said. "Which is saying something, because when I heard about all the things you'd done I thought you were pretty mature. I'm really happy you're letting us back into your life, so much has changed and it'll be good to share it with you."

"What's changed?" I asked, joking. "Dad's t-total now and in a stable relationship, you're in a good relationship and have a great job. I'm living with my boyfriend; we're happy and have great jobs…"

Chuckling, Matthew looked at me with a different smile. "There's a big difference," he said. "You're going to be an aunty."

I blinked, even Arthur looked away from his book at this point, but we both looked at Matthew with smiles on our faces.

"You're having a baby?" I grinned.

"Uh huh," Matthew replied, grinning too. "Sofia's 6 months pregnant. She'd have come today too but she didn't want to intrude just in case this didn't go as well as it has."

"Do you know what you're having?" I asked.

"A boy," Matthew smiled. "We've called him Dominick."

I grinned and hugged him again. "Oh this is great news!" I grinned, closing my eyes as he hugged me back. "Next time you visit, she has to come to! Or we'll go to you… though I have no idea where you live, but still!"

He laughed and hugged me tighter. "We'll come see you."

_**Notes:**_

**Did I ever mention that CanUkr is one of my guilty pleasure pairings?**

**No, well now you know xD**

**Anyways, lookie! Another family reunion but this time it Mattie!**

**IrishMaid – thank you so much for you big review and all the cheer up help :) I felt better just from that but I will try my best to look out for those stories too!**

**Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing and stuff and just, well, I really appreciate it. You're all awesome :)**


	11. December 11th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Eleven**

**December Eleventh**

My hands felt like ice, but there was nothing I could do to stop the pain. I hated having to go to the shops at such a late hour, but Arthur wanted something specific for when he came home from work and I promised to make it without realising that we hadn't any of the ingredients in the house.

I hadn't gone out too long ago – only 2 hours and I'd been inside the shopping centre the entire time. But now I was stood out in the dark waiting for a bus to take me back into the village and things were not going my way.

To start off with, I was all alone. That wasn't a nice feeling when you're in the dark and cold, the paranoia of thinking someone might be out in those trees across the road watching you causing you to be so totally scared of every little noise and movement that it seemed more like Gremlins rather than White Christmas.

I was also in an area where the people weren't quite as nice as you'd think they'd be in a small area like this. There were teenaged boys running and skidding in the snow, throwing snowballs at each other – each with more cigarettes than brain cells. Then a car drove past me, beeping its horn loudly as the boys inside hung out of the window and shouted 'bus wanker' at me.

Charming really. I understood the reference and thought of how immature those boys must be if they got enjoyment of trying to insult someone in such an unoriginal way. Could they not think of their own insults anymore? Did they really have to get their slurs from sitcoms?

I started to rub my arms to trying and get some warmth into my body again, shifting my feet to keep the blood circulating around my body to spread any warmth that I still had.

At least I could be sure that any frozen foods I had would stay frozen out in this weather…

When I had opened my calendar that morning, I had been given the promise of a warm drink, a DVD of the first film we'd gone to see at the cinema and snuggling on the sofa in front of the fire – but instead here I was… nearly 5:15 in the evening freezing my ass off because we didn't have the right food Arthur wanted…

Now, I'm not blaming him. Far from it – I mean, I could have called him back and said we don't have any of that stuff, or just waited for him to get home and explain to him in person. But no, I had to go out into the cold to get the food and now freeze to death because the bus was late.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

I was starting to get scared now.

I was still completely alone at this bus stop and a couple of cars had passed by me already with really skeezy men inside – some of them leering out of the windows at me as they passed, but one guy actually stopped and asked me how much I wanted.

I told him where to go and he said some very vile things that Arthur probably would have punched him for, and then drove away into the distance to look for a real hooker.

It was 5:45pm now, 2 buses were now late and I was getting pissed off with everything.

Blinking, I looked down at my bag as my phone started to ring inside it – pulling it out into the cold air and answering after checking the caller ID.

"Arthur?" I said.

"Is that you at the bus stop?"

Blinking, I looked round and spotted someone stood at the end of the path. I waved and they waved back. "Did you just wave back at me?"

"Well, I waved yes…" he said. "So that is you?" He started walking towards me, hanging up the phone as he started to jog down the path. His cheeks were pink by the time he got to me, and he looked absolutely confused. "What are you doing out here all alone at this time of night?"

"I was doing some shopping earlier because we didn't have what you wanted for dinner…" I admitted. "And I've been waiting for the bus…"

"Give me those bags…" he said, taking them from me before I could protest. "What am I going to do with you?"

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

Arthur walked me home and made sure that I went straight into the living room to warm up when we got inside. He put the shopping in the kitchen then put the fire on in the living room so that I could get warmer whilst he put the shopping away.

On the way home, he told me he had been walking home from a local event he would be covering in a story in the next week when he had spotted me alone at the bus stop.

I had to admit that, though it was a knock to my girl-power idea, it was a relief to see Arthur and have him with me on the way home. He always took care of me, and if I were pregnant and something were to happen to me out there…

It didn't bare thinking about it…

Soon, Arthur came into the living room with a mug of hot chocolate and a plate of hot nibbles, setting the tray it was all on on the coffee table before putting in the DVD and sitting next to me again.

At least I got my treat in the end.

_**Notes:**_

**URGH. ILL.**

**I've got a bunged up nose, sore throat, gunky ears, and a killer cough…**

**So, I'm sorry this chapter was brief, but**

**I did warm they would be short sometimes**

**I'm sick… Bare with me…**

**Thank you :)**


	12. December 12th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Twelve**

**December Twelfth**

When I had said about my reunions with my father and brother, I got a lot of questions from my friends about why I had forgiven them so easily. They just couldn't seem to understand that despite everything that they had said to me when I was younger, they were still my family. Some people were saying that Arthur was being presumptuous in arranging these reunions without my knowledge and a part of me was thinking that too, but the louder voice in my head was saying that if he hadn't have done that then I would never had done so.

I didn't feel angry towards them anymore, neither did I feel resentful or betrayed – I just didn't see the point of it. Life is too short to hold a grudge, so let bygones be bygones and move on to enjoy the little time you have together. I was too scared to contact them myself just in case they did still hate me, but to know that Arthur had looked into what they were doing and found out that they were looking for me before contacting them himself made me feel like he was there for me – he had made sure that they were remorseful of what they did before allowing them to come into contact with me again.

So maybe he had been a bit presumptuous in talking to them without my knowing, but he did it for me and that's what counted.

And that's what I told all of them – some of them accepted that whilst others said they'd have my family begging on their knees. I guess I just had a stronger compassion towards people than they did.

Besides, my advent calendar held another surprise for me – a had two options; option 1 was if the reunion had gone well then my father would be coming back with his girlfriend, option 2 was a trip into town to look at all the new Christmas stuff that had been set out.

Seeing as the reunion had been a success, I wanted to give option 1 a go to see what this new beau of my father's was like.

At 12am, the doorbell rang signally their arrival so I left Arthur in the kitchen where we were making a roast dinner and went to open the door – smiling as my Dad grinned at me and a woman just a bit smaller than him smiled too. She was just as he had described her – cherry red hair, dark brown eyes, curvy… I was happy for him.

"Hi," I smiled, stepping aside to let them into the house. "It's so great to see you."

"Hey, Baby," Dad smiled, kissing my cheek.

"Hi, Amelia, I'm Rosalynn Madison," said Dad's girlfriend, holding her hand out to shake mine. I chuckled and shook her hand, giving her a quick hug.

"Hi, Rosalynn," I smiled. "Please, go through to the living room. Arthur's in the kitchen making dinner so it shouldn't be too long if I go in there and resurrect anything he's made…"

"I resent that," Arthur called from the kitchen.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

It was a good thing that I went to the kitchen again as Arthur had very nearly set fire to the chicken in the oven…

But I managed to do a little magic in the kitchen and make everything edible again, something that Arthur kept mumbling about throughout the afternoon. Honestly, sometimes he could be so childish it amused me.

We all did some real talking for once - Dad was telling me all about work and what had been going on with his life to make him become who he was and he kept asking me about things that had been going on in my life.

He did admit that he thought that I'd probably have a child by now, but that he was proud that we had been so careful – and that he wasn't opposed to the idea of having another grandchild on the way.

At this I decided with a glance at Arthur to tell my father that we had recently started trying for a baby, something that he seemed genuinely pleased about and that Rosalynn gushed about.

She was a very nice woman, Rosalynn – she had been with my father for 2 and a half years, but had been a friend helping to get him out of his alcoholic self-destruction; something that I thanked her immensely for.

Rosalynn was a very bubbly vivacious woman – she was incredibly happy but reserved, and something that I was impressed with was her impossibly good natured modesty. Every compliment my father gave her she would blush and shake her head, smiling a little in the ways that I used to with Arthur (and still did from time to time). She seemed unaware of how beautiful and kind she was; a good person who had managed to help my father in a very difficult time.

"So, you've heard about Matthew and Sofia having a baby?" Rosalynn asked, sipping her wine.

"Yeah, Mattie came by on Monday and told us," I replied, sipping my water – I was sticking to non-alcoholic drinks just in case. "Dominick is a very cute name."

"George has been very excited about the new arrival," Rosalynn smiled, chuckling as Dad pouted at her.

"I've been normal," he said.

"You have been turning into a woman around any baby clothes," Rosalynn countered, smirking a little. "He saw these tiny brown baby Converses. He wouldn't shut up about them for a week."

"You're so mean to me!"

I couldn't help but laugh, shaking my head fondly. "God only knows what he'll be like if I'm pregnant."

"Worse most likely because it's his daughter going through it," Rosalynn chuckled.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

They left at 6pm after helping with the washing up and more chatting. I was slightly sad to see them go but I was glad that my father had found someone as lovely as Rosalynn.

I really liked her and knew that she was taking good care of Dad.

I looked at Arthur after I shut the door, smiling as he held my waist and pulled me against him gently.

"So you're really not mad about me arranging all these visits?" he asked, leaning his forehead down onto mine.

"No, Arthur," I smiled. "I not mad. I'm grateful."

"Grateful?"

"I would never have had the courage to do it myself," I smiled. "You not only gave me my father back and my brother, but Rosalynn, Dominick, and probably Sofia too when I get to meet her. I've gained more than I would have thought possible thanks to you."

Smiling, Arthur kissed me softly and hugged me. "Well, I'm glad I could help."

_**Notes:**_

**And here I give you another medicine fuelled, cold induced chapter.**

**Again, sorry for the crapness – I can barely breath, keep coughing and ended up leaving college seriously early because I just couldn't do anything.**

**I ended up coming home, falling asleep whilst trying to do an assignment. Finishing the assignment four hours later and then working on this whilst talking to a friend and helping my Dad learn how to work his new phone.**

**His phone is better than mine, the sod :(**

**So, an explanation of the names:**

**_George_ – I like to call Amelia/Alfred's OC father George because of George Washington. As he was the first president of the USA and a founding father, I decided to use the name in that sense.**

**_Eleanor_ – Amelia's middle name which was also her mother's name. Again, another history moment as it was after Eleanor Roosevelt who was the longest serving first lady.**

**_Rosalynn Madison_ – A combination of two names of first ladies. Rosalynn Carter – simply because I like the name Rosalynn as it's pretty. Dolley Madison – the wife of the fourth president of the USA, James Madison, and the first First Lady to be called that.**

**So there's you little history lesson of the day.**

**Thank you to all of you who've been sending me "get well soon" messages, you guys are so sweet.**

**And to the anon reviewer who said about Amelia forgiving them too easily and Arthur being presumptuous, I hope that that beginning part gave you some explanation as to why this happened. :) Don't be offended or anything, I just felt like giving you a creative answer.**


	13. December 13th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**December Thirteenth**

I got sick again…

Not the vomiting kind of sickness, just the cold variety. Man, I hated getting sick – I was holed up in bed with a mountain of tissues, a Vicks inhaler, Soothers cough sweets and nasal spray.

And I felt like hell.

Arthur had made me stay in bed and brought me up a glass of water then all of the medicine and the tissues, making me take a couple of paracetamol to help keep my temperature down and ease the pain in the back of my throat. He still had to go into work to finish the copy on a story he'd been working on, but had promised me that he would be home as soon as he could.

So that left me alone in the bedroom sniffing and coughing, watching mind-numbingly bad TV because I just couldn't be bothered to move other to put on a DVD. I would have got a film on the On Demand service we had but at £4 a movie for each movie... it really wasn't worth it, to be honest.

Looking over at my vanity table, I spotted my advent calendar sitting there waiting to be opened for that day. I found it ironic that I had gotten this ill on the 13th but as much as I was superstitious about things, it was just a coincidence. I remember one time when a teacher talked about why there was such speculation about Friday the 13th in the world in an assembly.

Well, today wasn't a Friday the 13th – it was a Thursday – but the 13th part still applies.

I was starting to get really bored, so I got out of bed and wandered over to the table to get my calendar. On my way back, I put in The Avengers (hey, I may have been sick but that didn't mean that I wasn't able to appreciate Caps ass in that costume), and sat down on the bed to try and loosen the knotting feeling in my chest. It was like someone was sitting on my rib cage and trying to squash the air out of me.

Taking in a deep breath through my mouth, I opened up the calendar and pulled out the chocolate – eating it though I had to breathe in again before I did so and pulling out the note beneath it.

_I wasn't sure what to do today, but I know how much you love them. You'll see when I get home._

I tilted my head a little to try and figure out what the note meant – what did I love and why was Arthur going to bring it when he got home? He was really starting to freak me out with how accurate he was with the gifts and surprises on the right days – like he somehow knew that I would be sick on some days, be free on another, working…

I really didn't know what he could mean by "how much I love them"… That could relate to anything – it could mean the various comics I had building up in the attic, the candies that I loved, my family… I really couldn't place my finger on what Arthur could be referring to…

When I realised that I wasn't really watching the film at all, I turned everything off and just laid back in bed.

The answer would come to be somehow…

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

I hadn't realised I'd fallen asleep until I jolted awake a few hours later at the sound of the front door closing. I looked at the clock beside Arthur's side of the bed and saw that it was 2pm – but then it caught up to me that the front door had just closed.

I was a little nervous but I couldn't call out to find out who was there - my voice had gone and couldn't bring myself to get out of bed to go and check because if it wasn't Arthur coming home then it could be anyone…

Soon, I heard footsteps making their way ominously up the stairs and along the corridor, the thudding sound getting louder and louder the closer that it got to me. I was getting nervous, so turned over to look at the door when it creaked open.

A smile spread across my face at the sight.

It was Arthur after all, and he was holding a basket full of bright red poinsettia and a box chocolates. There was an awkward smile on his face but he came over and handed me the flowers, placing the chocolates on the bedside table.

"Oh Arthur," I said, my voice harsh and croaky. "I love them…"

"I know," he chuckled, kissing my head. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now I've had a nap," I said, covering my mouth with a tissue as I coughed. "Still can't breathe well or talk without sounding like a heavy smoker but better."

Arthur chuckled again and set the flowers on the side where I could still see them, sitting beside me on the bed and putting his arm around me. I was worried about him catching my cold, but he said that he had a constant cold so it didn't affect him that much anymore. He smoothed his fingers through my hair and held me close, smiling down at me as I looked up at him with a blush.

"What's that look for?" he asked me.

"I'm just trying to get used to you taking care of me like this," I replied, smiling a little.

"I've clearly not been doing my job right then," he chuckled, nuzzling me. "I'll always look after you… I just hope you can forgive me if I make mistakes…"

"Why, what have you done?" I asked, looking up at him.

He shook his head though. "I'm still feeling guilty about the reunions thing…" he said.

I rolled my eyes and kissed his cheek. "Well, get over it," I said. "I'm okay with it and everything's turned out fine."

"And if it hadn't?"

"Then I'd have been mad at you," I said. "But I'd have calmed down. You mean too much to me."

Arthur nodded, but I could tell that he was still feeling bad – something told me that he may have seen the public Tweets my friends had said about him…

_**Notes:**_

**Ah… Well, I'm getting better but I felt like making Amelia ill again so I did.**

**Poinsettia is a very pretty plant – it's described as a bush rather than flowers, but it looks like a flower so that's how I described it…**

**To the anon reviewer - I'm going to label this as **_**You can't win them all**_**. I get what you're saying, but at the same time… this is just a story. Yeah, there are times when a person arranges something that goes wrong - I hate to be blunt but sometimes you've just got to get up off your high horse and move on. So Person B doesn't end up getting along with the people Person A invited - to be honest, if they thought that much of Person A then they would have forgiven them for the mistake that they had made. I'm not talking about the example you gave, I'm talking hypothetical/this story. I know I would. Sure, I'd be a bit angry but still, this person went to a lot of trouble. But again, this is just a story… I would hope that no one would try something they read in fiction or fan-fiction but that's just the way of the world. So, I'm sorry that you don't like how some things have gone in this story - but that's what a writer does, they create a plot that gets you questioning things. A story is no good with perfect characters who make no mistakes - a character needs flaws to get the audience attached to them. For Amelia, she's too forgiving. Arthur is too presumptuous. Amongst other things. A story is not written to tailor the needs of a reader, it's there to make them think about how they would act in that situation - which I've done with you. It'd be a shame for you to skip out on the chapters involving George and Matthew – speaking as a Harry Potter fan, just because I disliked Lockhart I didn't skip the chapters with him in, but I respect your decision. It's still a shame though. So, I'll give you a heads up – the next chapter involves Matthew. Also, I'm sorry that you don't have an account so that I could have done this privately but that's the risk you take when you go anon. :) **

**C'est la vie.**


	14. December 14th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Fourteen**

**December Fourteenth**

I found a picture of the Canadian flag in my advent calendar that morning, and in an instant I knew that that meant my brother was going to come back for another visit – something that I was looking forward to greatly as he promised the next time I would get to meet Sofia. I had been trying to figure out why I wasn't able to meet her any sooner – but considering how far gone she was it didn't really take that much guessing.

The stress on her body was likely causing her to be very tired and if she worked then she was probably waiting for her maternity leave to start – I know that's what I'd probably do, but working in a nursery would probably be dangerous for the baby as some of those kids knew how to punch really hard… and they generally aim for the stomach, so I've been dodging them pretty sharpish just in case…

I was sat in the living room in front of the fire; a book perched on my lap and the TV off as I tried to entertain myself. Once again, Arthur was at work but he had promised me that he would be home before Matthew and Sofia showed up.

Reading was something that Arthur and I had slightly in common, though he and I had varied tastes in books. As I grew up, I collected a lot of books that Arthur used to scoff at – The Mediator, Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games (amongst others). Recently I'd bought books like Anna Dressed In Blood, but Arthur still thought that the books I read were not as good as his. He had copies of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Shakespeare tales like The Tempest and Hamlet. Books we did share an interest in books like Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia.

I was currently rereading The Da Vinci Code – I loved that book so much, and the movie, but still nothing compared to the written word. I know that I'm not painting the picture of a typical American, but being different from a stereotype is so much more fun than conforming to one.

Arthur had said he wanted to read those books (The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and The Lost Symbol) but what with all the other books he had been working his way through like a blonde bookworm he never had the time to.

I looked up from my book when I heard a noise at the door, turning around in my seat to watch the front door open and Arthur come inside – he looked frozen as the temperature had dropped a bit more, so I set my book down and went to get him a cup of tea.

"That's it," he said. "My holidays are starting now!"

"Oh really?" I chuckled, making him the tea. "Is that official?"

"It is now," he replied, going to the living room to sit in front of the fireplace to warm himself up. "I'm calling in later and if they don't like it then they can lump it. They've been overworking me and it's not on."

"You say this all the time," I said, bringing him in the tea. "But you let them walk all over you…"

"Well, this time I mean it," he said. "Enough is enough."

I chuckled and sat down myself and looked at the time. "What time should Mattie and Sofia be here?"

"Any time now, I think," Arthur said, sipping the tea after I handed it to him. "Hmmm, thank you, Love."

"You're welcome," I smiled, getting up when the doorbell rang. As I opened the door I smiled and let Matthew and Sofia into the house, shutting the door behind them to stop anymore cold getting in. "Hey, Matthew," I said. "And, you must be Sofia!"

"Yes, that's me," she smiled, smoothing her large bump.

"Here, give me your coat and go sit in the living room," I said.

"Oh thank you," she replied, taking off her coat with Matthew's help and handing it to me with his so that I could hang them both up.

The rest of the afternoon with them really well – I had a few moments with Matthew that were a bit awkward, but that's what happens when you don't talk to your brother for a long time and tell him that you and your long-term boyfriend are trying for a baby. But those were the only moments, the times when Matthew became the protective older brother that he could be on occasion – he kept asking Arthur questions about what his plans were, how he was supporting us and stuff like that. All things to make sure that I would be okay.

I found out a lot about Sofia especially – and once again, one of the people I had thought I'd be leaving behind had met someone so incredibly sweet and bubbly that I could have missed out on ever meeting. She was a very shy woman – she had always had a lot of attention because of the size of her breasts (they were really big… but natural… Her back must constantly ache…) and didn't really trust Matt until he proved he genuinely care for her and not just her boobs.

She used to work in a clothes store, but she had recently gone on sick leave before her maternity started because of problems with her back. I got along with her swimmingly and though she seemed pretty shy and slightly prone to tears at some points, she was a really lovely person.

They showed Arthur and me the scans of Dominick, and it was truly an amazing thing – Matthew simply beamed at every image they had and every little mention of the little boy growing inside his girlfriend. I was really happy for them and wished them all the luck in the world – Sofia being the first of the pair to wish us the same luck if we did get pregnant soon. Matthew agreed afterwards but then again he had to keep up the big brother thing.

When they left a few hours later, I was happy. Not about them leaving, but know that some good things were happening for Matthew.

And when Arthur's arms wrapped around my waist again and his hands rested on my stomach, I knew some good things were going to start for us too.

_**Notes:**_

**Firstly, I would like to make an apology to all you readers about my conversation in the notes with the anon reviewer – believe me, they will not be continuing. In the last message, I tried to be reasonable but they came back with a pretty rude response. So I deleted it. I kept the other messages because the calmer responses to the story were welcome – I was looking for reviews and I got one that was a different view, which was great. But being rude was uncalled for so, that the end of that :) So any rude reviews will be deleted from now on :)**

**I'd turn anon off by there are some really lovely polite reviewers who use the anon thing to review cos they don't have accounts and I don't want to spoil your fun because there's one person causing trouble.**

**Anyways, who loves Sofia/Ukraine? Who thinks she and Matt are cute? :3 **

**Ah, I like feeling better! I write much happier things lol!**


	15. December 15th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Fifteen**

**December Fifteenth**

One of the things that I used to do on a Saturday when I lived in Devon with my father and brother was a little Saturday job in a store. It was only for a few hours every Saturday, but it gave me enough money to be able to go out and enjoy myself with Arthur and my friends.

It was a cosy little store – one of those dinky ones in the town centre, an independent little place that was doing really well because of its individuality. It had been there for a long time – nearly 10 years by the time I started looking for a job there when I was 16, and the man who owned the store was a very bubbly man (he had a boyfriend in London who he constantly talked about – it was endearing really). He was very kind to me about employment, taking my name down to be able to get a job when I was closer to 18 – you had to be at least 17 (supervised of course) to be able to sell cigarettes, which they had a lot of…

So that's how I used to spend my Saturday afternoons, 1 until 5:30 with £18 to show for it and then locking myself away in my bedroom for the rest of the evening after I had made my way home alone in the dark. I would end up on MSN with Arthur just talking about random things whilst working on coursework and assignments or just reading a good book. I wasn't really one for all those reality shows and talent contests so I just sat with the radio on in the background.

I couldn't help but think back on those days as I sat on the window seat in the master bedroom of our home, simply looking out of the window as more snow gently fluttered down from the sky to join the rest that was still lingering on the roads and pavements. I had stolen one of Arthur's old hoodies (yes, he had a hoody… scary, huh?) and put it on over the top of my pyjama t-shirt, my pyjama bottoms tucked inside my long fluffy bed socks. I'd had a shower and everything, but I didn't feel like going out anywhere so I had put some fresh pyjamas on to just relax.

Arthur was in the shower at that moment – I'd woken up before him because I still had that cold about me. I'd fuelled myself with Soothers and Lemsip yesterday so that I could be awake enough to be able to see Sofia and Matthew, and today I was starting to feel the effects of forcing myself to do things. I wasn't as ill, but I still had that tingle around my throat and kept sniffing as my sinuses clogged up.

Getting up off of the window seat, I went over to my vanity table again and picked up my advent calendar. I hadn't opened the door for the fifteenth yet, so searched the numbers until I found the right one – opening it quickly and eating the chocolate. I pulled out the note and looked at the handwritten message once more.

_I know you have a sweet tooth so open the tub of Celebrations. You might just find something sweeter than chocolate_.

Confused, I set the calendar down and went to the door to go downstairs. Arthur was always so picky about sweets – he wouldn't ever let me open the Christmas sweets early, not ever, so this was very out of character for him.

For anyone unaware, Celebrations were a type of collection box brand which had all sorts of famous brands of chocolates inside – Malteesers, Galaxy, Mars, Milky Way… so many that made my mouth water just thinking about them.

I made my way into the living room, kneeling down before the cupboard in the corner of the room and opening the doors to reveal all the wonderful treats we had been building up for Christmas. I rummaged through and found the tub of Celebrations, taking it out and shutting the door afterwards. I sat down on the sofa and took the seal off of the tub, pulling the plastic lid off and delving inside – if Arthur said I might find something then he must have hidden something inside the tub somehow.

And I was right.

My hand met something cool and smooth, so I carefully pulled it out from under the sweets and gasped at the sight – it was a necklace, a blue sapphire necklace with a gold chain that I had lost years ago that Arthur had bought me for my 16th birthday. I remember scolding him for buying me something so expensive but he didn't seem to care just as long as I was happy.

"Surprised?"

I gasped slightly and looked round to see him stood in the doorway, nodding my head in response to his question.

"How did you get it in there?"

"Magic," he chuckled. "Are you pleased?"  
"Very," I replied. "Where did you find it?"

"In a box of old things," he said. "It was at my house the whole time but I only found it about a month ago. So I decided to do something special with it instead of simply giving it back."

"You're right," I chuckled. "This is sweeter than chocolate."

_**Notes:**_

**Another short chapter today but hey, I had work all afternoon and just wanted to relax whilst I wrote.**

**But then I found a full copy of Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva on YouTube and wound up watching that at the same time.**

**Oh well lol :D**


	16. December 16th and 17th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Sixteen**

**December 16****th**** and 17****th**

_December 16__th_

You know, I really hate Sundays. Sundays are possibly the worst day of the week in my opinions – everyone says about how much they hate Mondays, that awful feel of Mondays when the week is too long and the weekend is too far away from the start. But Sundays to me were far worse.

Sunday was the day when everything shut early – the day was cut to a halt sooner because of everyone wanting to get home, but then when you got home there was nothing on TV. Sure, you could be the radio on and listen to music, spend time with family, go out for a walk, all those types of things – but who really did that in December? The ground was so thick with snow that we were almost snowed in, the TV was awful, the music on the radio was becoming so repetitive that I could literally say which song was going to get played when, and when Arthur got bored he got solitary.

Which was the ultimate clash of personalities for us as when I got bored I got irritatingly childish and idle.

He would wander off to his study where he had hundreds of books in boxes and on shelves, shutting himself inside for a few hours to make his way through yet another book. But this left me out in the rest of the house, wandering around in dull hopes of finding something to amuse myself.

I could play in the Wii we had set up in the living room – I'd just got Just Dance 4, but that was really only fun when there was more than one player… and you were pretty drunk as you played…

I could carry on with the Professor Layton series – I'd finished Scribblenauts and started to replay Professor Layton and the Curious Village, but I had yet to finish it. Apparently, according to some very unsubtle hints from Arthur, I would be getting Miracle Mask for Christmas so I had set myself the challenge of working my way through that series again.

I could always read a book – I had 7 chapters of The Da Vinci Code left to read but something about sitting down and reading something in this cold just made me not want to do it…

In the end, I decided that it would probably be a good idea to look at my advent calendar – I hadn't opened it, you see, so maybe whatever Arthur had planned for me today would entertain me for a few hours. I went to the main bedroom and got my calendar from the vanity table, opening the little door that said 16. My chocolate was shaped like a tiny holly leaf today, so I ate that and pulled the note out from underneath it:

_It's time for a little journey down memory lane. Go to the living room and look in the hollow footstool by my armchair._

"He never lets me in that…" I said, setting the calendar down to follow the instructions. When I got back into the living room, I knelt down beside the footstool that Arthur had been talking about. Lifting the lid, I started to riffle through the papers that had built up from old house bills, photos and an old book – finally I found it.

A little black DVD case was tucked away at the bottom of the footstool, so I pulled it out and opened it to find a disk with Arthur's handwriting on that said "Memory Lane". I put the footstool back in its place and went over to the DVD player to put the disk into the machine, turning the TV on in the process and taking the remote back to the sofa with me.

I pressed play and waited for the disk to load, smiling as the first clip played.

Arthur and I were waving at the camera – he was dressed up as a soldier with a red coat and I was in an old fashioned dress. We were 11/12 years old and it was my first school performance in the UK – we were in _The Nutcracker and The Mouse_, I was Marie and Arthur was Nutcracker/Drosselmeier's nephew. The scene cut to us on stage, Arthur dancing rigidly in the form of the nutcracker and me dancing fluidly whilst blushing madly. I could remember Arthur was muttering things to me that whole time, funny little things that shouldn't have been spoken to try and make me laugh.

The scene cut again and the date in the corner showed that a year had passed – this time we were 12/13 and it was summer. I was sat on a bench eating an ice cream and Arthur was getting some chips – we were at Thorpe Park as his mum and dad had invited me along for a little day trip. His dad had the camera at the point and he was filming us secretly as I had no idea this footage existed – Arthur had come back and seen I had ice cream on my face, so he got a tissue from the chips he'd bought and quickly wiped it away, much to my embarrassment. The cut clip to us and his brothers and sister stood under the splash zone next to Tidal Wave, back when it still got people soaked there. The wave from the ride crashed down on us, all of us yelling/screaming as we ran back over to the side lines – but of course Arthur dragged me back and got me soaked again.

The next scene was a year later once more – when we were 14/15. It was Christmas again, and this time this was Arthur's footage. He was filming me in the town centre as we got ready to get onto the ice rink – I went over and took the camera from him, turning it on us both and kissing his cheek. It was our first date. The scene cut to stuff he filmed as we went around on the ice – me looking like Bambi as he tried to keep me stood upright.

Changing once more, the next scene was another year later – 15/16, our leaver's prom. I really don't know how he did it – I was watching as slow dance, he was singing to me softly and holding my hands; I could see the blush on my face. I remember the dress I was wearing well – it was a princess dress, a white net-like skirt that went down to the floor and a strapless light blue corset top with diamantes. Arthur had a tie the same colour as the top of my dress and had even gotten me flowers the same colour – saying they matched my eyes.

Next came, 16/17 years old and a bowling trip we'd taken with friends from college. I remember that day so clearly, we had all gone out to see a movie and then went to the bowling centre in the same building – I won two games out of 3, the last game Arthur won because he was just so competitive. I was doing a dance of victory in the scene I was watching, Arthur coming over and lifting me up over his shoulder to carry me out of the way as I thumped his ass.

I knew because of studies and moving that there were no clips of us between 17 and 21, so I wasn't surprised when the next clips said a more recent date. But I was surprised at what the clip was. I was in bed, 22 years old, and Arthur was filming me and trying to get out of bed. He was teasing me, and I was laughing and trying to bury myself in the covers. So he got behind me and filmed us both, pulling the covers back to kiss my bare shoulder. I turned over and kissed him on the lips and that's where the clip cut.

22/23 still, but this was a shot of us at our friends Lovina and Antonio's wedding. I had been a bridesmaid with Lovina's sister Feliciana so I was wearing this floaty red dress. We were sat at a table at the side, Arthur's arm around me as we listened to the speeches – he was heckling Gilbert, Antonio's best man, with Francis. I nudged him and he pulled me closer to him, kissing my cheek to try and butter me up. It worked.

That's where the DVD ended, and I was utterly speechless at what a memory Arthur had of events that had included us – and his sheer determination to put together those clips together to show me the randomly sweet things that we had done together over the 13 years I had known him.

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind being interrupted in his study for what I had in mind for him now…

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

_December 17__th_

We ended up not leaving his study for the rest of that afternoon, and most of the things that had been on his desk had ended up on the floor so as to be replaced by my body.

That had been an interesting change of scenery.

That day was going to hold a simpler treat for me – we were going to go out and walk around the town centre under the Christmas lights.

We hadn't down anything really calm together for a little while, sure we had been spending time together and stuff but little things like just walking around the shops at night time with the stars above us and the lights and other people laughing and having a nice time with their families…

So at 5pm we head out into the snow, thankfully no more was predicted to fall for a little bit but all that had fallen already had decided that it was going to stay for a long time. We trudged our way through to the bus stop, hopping onto the first bus that would take us into the town centre. Arthur had his arm around me the whole time, looking out of the window with me and watching all the faces fly past.

There was a scare at one point when I drunk man nearly crashed into the bus, but we had got the lucky bus with the talented driver who was able to stop in time to let the fucking idiot go on passed without hurting any of us on board.

When we got to the town centre, it was like stepping into a fairy tale village – it was like something that should be put onto the front of a postcard or in a calendar, the little shops with their snow covered roofs, and the frozen water in the fountain in the middle of the town centre, the ice rink and lights. It was all so magical, and I was zoning out so badly because of it Arthur just took my hand and started to walk through the streets with me.

I stayed close to him, smiling at everything around us. I recognised a few kids from the day care – the little ones waving at me and calling out "hiya, Miss Jonesy!"

At one point, Arthur bought me a hot dog from a vender nearby who was having a holidays special – basically he'd just lowered the price, but the food was still so good. We stood around eating and drinking from the bottle of Sprite he'd also bought, watching as people ran after their children and the kids laughed – some dancing around to the Christmas music that was being played through speakers around the square.

"Just think, in a few years we may have our own child running around in the snow," I smiled, looking up at him.

"I hope so," Arthur replied, smiling back at me.

_**Notes:**_

**So yeah. Yesterday I just really didn't feel like writing anything so didn't. But to be honest, with how short some of these chapters have started to become this idea may be a good one.**

**You know, write the stuff for one day then the next days and upload it then.**

**However, I have been in a better mood today than I was the other day – I went shopping and visited my Nan and went straight out with my Mum after she finished work. So I was keeping myself preoccupied for a while.**

**So the events in the DVD:**

**~ I actually was in a performance of The Nutcracker when I was 4. I played a robot though. 2 of my friends were dolls and another of my friends was the wheel of a train.**

**~ Thorpe Park is an amazing theme park. I adore it to no end and go every year.**

**~ I never actually went to my school's leaver's prom. I regret nothing as it was the same day as the Harry Potter finale premier so I choice that instead!**

**~ Cute. Who can deny a cute, in bed scene? And I'm sure you can figure out what they did when the clip cut ;)**

**~ Yeah, this scene was referring to another story that I wrote a little while ago but without the ending that I gave that story and a male Prussia. **

**Anyways, just in case I don't update tomorrow:**

**18****th**** – the introduction of a new character for this tale (a fairly old one for me though)**

**19****th**** – a different kind of visit. **

**Just to give you a little teaser ;)**


	17. December 18th and 19th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Seventeen**

**December Eighteenth and Nineteenth**

_December Eighteenth_

Of all of Arthur's siblings, I think that I enjoyed the company of Aednat the most. Though she and Ryan were twins, she was the younger of the pair so they often referred to her as the third youngest. Basically, the order of age within Arthur's siblings went as such: Scott, Bryn, Ryan, Aednat, Arthur, and Peter.

Arthur's mother astounded me, and found me very amusing when we had first met as I didn't understand how someone could push six children out of them and still looks as slim and beautiful as she did.

But it wasn't just because Aednat was the only girl in their family – I had some reliability with her on that account as I was the only girl in my family too. No, it was because of how she acted – Aednat was a free spirit, a very independent soul who took me under her wing when I first met Arthur's siblings and they started fighting. She clashed with Arthur a lot and I remember one time they refused to speak to each other for 3 whole months. They still clashed from time to time now, but they were a lot more civil than they used to be.

I mean, one time Arthur and I had a really big argument – so big that I thought that he was never going to be my friend again. He had been smothering me over something, this was before we were a couple, and it was just getting to the point that I wanted out. So I stood up to him and he argued with me and we didn't speak for a while. But Aednat knew that I missed him so kept in contact with me so that she could drop lines to Arthur. It took a little while but he eventually started to talk to me again and…

Well, you know the rest.

And it seemed Arthur was still aware of my fondness of Aednat after all this time – it may have been the fact that I emailed her every other day and had random chats on the phone with her.

In my calendar today, I was given the gift of a shopping trip with Aednat who was coming over with her family from the Republic of Ireland for Christmas. Joshua, her husband who I got along great with, was going to spend the day hanging out with Arthur with the twins, Ava and Jinnie, whilst Aednat and I spent some "girl time" together.

So when Aednat showed up with her family (Ava with hair as red as her mother's, whilst Jinnie's was as dark as her father's) I could hardly keep the smile off my face. Doing all the usual motherly things, Aednat said goodbye to the one year olds, Joshua and Arthur and left the house with me to wander around the stores.

We did end up getting a few items – little things that we thought would be nice extra gifts for the twins, Scott's 4 year old Scarlet, and Bryn's 2 year old Jack. We chatted the whole time, catching up on the smaller things until we went to a little café to settle in the warm to have a real chat.

"So," Aednat smiled, cradling the mug in her gloved hands. "I hear that some big changes have been going on?"

I nodded, sipping my hot chocolate. "Yeah, Arthur's been making some really awesome surprises," I replied, smiling into the liquid. "He found my Dad and brother and got them to come see me. It's going slowly but we're all getting back to what we should have been the whole time. Matthew's having a baby with his girlfriend, Sofia."

"Oh, that's so sweet," Aednat grinned. "What are they having?"

"A little boy," I smiled. "Dominick, they've called him. It's got an odd spelling but I think they were trying to compensate for the mixed nationalities."

Nodding, Aednat chuckled. "I understand that," she said. "Joshua being from the Philippines didn't help with naming Ava and Jinnie, but we came to a compromise in the end."

I chuckled and nodded. "It's been too long since I last saw them," I said. "They've gotten so big and beautiful."

"It's gone so fast," Aednat said, sipping her drink. "To think… in May they'll be 2…"

"Scarlet will be 5 in April, Jack will be 3 in September, Dominick will be born in March and Keiron will be born in January," I said, counting off all the children I knew of in both our families. "Scott did say they were calling their son Keiron, right?"

"That's it," Aednat nodded. "It's still pretty scary…"

"Speaking of scary…" I said, biting my lip. "And kids… Arthur and I are trying for a baby."

Blinking, Aednat looked up from her coffee in complete surprise. It took her a moment but she grinned and lent over to kiss my cheek. "Oh, Amie! I'm so pleased for you both! When can you find out?"

"I've been doing a lot of maths," I said. "And I should be able to find out Thursday… The 20th..."

"Are you excited?"

"Of course," I smiled. "Scared, excited, amazed, nervous… So many things at the same time… I hope I am pregnant, Arthur's been so happy lately and always brightens up at the mention of the possible baby…"

"Arthur always has had an affinity to try and look after people," Aednat said. "It would stand to reason that he would want a child of his own."

"Whenever he talks about having a child, he always says he'd love a daughter," I smiled. "He wants to have a little princess, a daddy's girl."

"That doesn't really surprise me."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

_December Nineteenth_

Another person that I got along with was Bryn. I loved him in a way a sister would a brother – he always looked out for me whenever I saw him, but he always liked to tease my height because he was always so damn tall.

The next day, Arthur's surprise for me would be a visit from him, Ruby and Jack as they too were coming home from Wales for Christmas – and I was more than pleased by the news.

It wouldn't be a trip out shopping like I did with Aednat, but I would get to see my adoptive older brother, get to chat with his adorable little wife and get cuddles from hyper little Jack.

Bryn was tall with mid-tone brown hair and green eyes like Arthur. He had the same build as the rest of his family – they all seemed to have this inherent ability to be lean and thin.

Ruby was smaller than all of us, with blue eyes and short curly blonde hair. For some reason, the parts at the side tended to curl of their own accord – like the horns of the sheep in her home country, New Zealand. She was very kind but had a tough streak when it came to her family or rugby. The pair of them seemed to have this amazing chemistry with the sport that I simply couldn't understand.

And then there was Jack – with green eyes like his father and his mother's curly blonde hair, he was a little hyper bundle that liked to run around in the little rugby kits his parents had bought him or other random clothes and giggle. Though he was healthy now, they had had a scare with him when Ruby gave birth at 26 weeks. He was so tiny when we got to see him, in the little incubator they put the premature babies in with all those wires and tubes… It was a scary sight, one that would scare me for a long time – but you wouldn't think that anything like that had happened to him as he ran around our living room.

"Aunty Amie!" he grinned, climbing up onto my lap and holding out a Spiderman soft toy. "LOOKIT! LOOKIT! Mummy gived it to me! He cool, wight! You like Spidey-man, too! He cool!"

"He's awesome!" I smiled, chuckling as he jumped down from my lap and continued to run around the living room. Ruby shook her head and smiled fondly at him, glancing at Bryn.

"I don't know where he gets his energy from," she said.

"You," Bryn said bluntly, smirking at her. "I never used to run around like that except when I was escaping from Scott or after Ryan, Aednat or Arthur to stop them wandering off…"

"So, how have you two been keeping?" Arthur asked, rolling his eyes at the wandering off comment.

"We've been well," Ruby smiled. "Bryn's been busy with the old ladies coming in to have their pets tended to because of the snow but it's been good. Jack's excited for Santa's visit."

"SANTA SANTA!" Jack grinned, bouncing up and down. "NEARLY CISMAS, AUNTY AMIE! UNCA AFUR!"

"I'm sure you'll get lots of presents from Santa," Arthur chuckled. "You're always such a good boy."

Jack giggled and hid behind Spiderman, hurrying back to his parents as he always went bashful at compliments. Bryn chuckled and picked the boy up onto his lap and hugged him close as he hid against him.

"What about you two?" Ruby asked, chuckling at her husband and son.

"Well, we've got some news," Arthur said, smiling and taking my hand – Ruby and Bryn looking at us curiously. "We're trying for a baby."

There was a momentary pause before grins grew on their faces and they came over to us to hug me and shake Arthur's hand.

"That's brilliant news!" Ruby smiled.

"So you might have knocked her up?" Bryn said, winking at Arthur. "Mum will be pleased to hear of another grandchild on the way!"

"We don't know if I am pregnant yet," I said. "We can start trying to find out tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" questioned Bryn. "Well, I hope you are and I hope you get a healthy child because you two deserve to be happy."

_**Notes:**_

**Ah, siblings! 2 out of 5 of Arthur's siblings.**

**Yes, over the next few chapters you will get to meet Scott and family, Ryan and Rochelle (Seychelles), plus Arthur's parents and Peter. **

**Just trying to figure out who will go when.**

**BUT HOOORRRAAAAY! TOMORROW IS MY LAST DAY OF COLLEGE FOR THE HOLIDAYS! And most of it is going to be spent in a pub cos my tutor's leaving and she's taking us out for drinks ;) **

**Well, I'll have Cola cos /is under 18… :(**

**And if you figured out your dates correctly, you'll know what chapter "December 20****th****" is going to be about :D**


	18. December 20th and 21st

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Eighteen**

**December Twentieth and Twenty-First**

_December Twentieth_

You know, I can't for the life of me ever remember a time where I was more nervous. I kept thinking back to big moments in my life when I had truly felt nervous.

The day of my mother's funeral was the first thing to come to mind – I remember that I never really felt sad on that day, only nervous. She had been the one person that seemed to truly care about me, and as much as I was sad that she was gone, I was really nervous about what was going to happen to me from then on…

I was terrified the night that I had ran away from home. It was the first time that I was totally alone in the world – in the sense that I had no one around me I knew, at least. There were such creepers out on the streets, pervy guys who seemed to have too much of a fetish for underage vulnerable girls… I was nervous about what would happen to me, and that no one would really care if it did happen…

Next was when Dad said we were moving to the UK. I remember all of the stress that it had caused me – I was nervous about leaving mom, I was nervous about leaving my friends, going to a totally different country, meeting new people, learning about an entirely different culture than my own… I'd thrown up a few times before and during the flight just thinking about how awful it could be in the UK for a troublesome little girl like me…

I was nervous that I wouldn't be accepted by Arthur's family as a friend or as his girlfriend. From what Arthur had told me about them when we had first met, they seemed like horrible bullies towards him but they were only bullies as older siblings. They were those oddly nice older-sibling-pick-on type people, taking a joke and making it funnier.

At this moment in time though, I was feeling a whole new type of nerves. Arthur had gone to the store to get some ingredients – he was making me dinner as my treat for the day, and thankfully he had chosen to make something that he knew I loved and that he could actually cook without burning the kitchen to the ground.

That left me alone in the house with 3 pregnancy tests stashed away in a bag in my wardrobe. With a heavy sigh, I got up from the sofa and went upstairs to fetch the tests. I was planning on doing this alone; I felt pressured enough as it was without Arthur looming around outside the bathroom to find out if I was or not…

So, after I got the tests from my wardrobe I went into the bathroom and shut the door, locking it for good measure just in case Arthur came back before he was supposed to. I took the first out of the packaging and read the instructions before taking the test. I set it on the side and then repeated the process with the other tests whilst I waited the 2 minutes for the first.

I had my head in my hands (after I'd washed them) as I waited for the results of the tests – looking up when I heard the first one beep, then the second, then the third…

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

_December Twenty-First_

Arthur's surprise for me the next day was a trip to the Christmas street party that was going on downtown that evening, and I had to say that I was really excited for it. It had snowed again, layering the ground with a new level of snow which made it slightly easier to walk on instead of the ice that was forming from the crushed previous snow.

Arthur kept close to me the entire time we made our way to the bus stop to go downtown – it was simply for cosiness and my own protection, I hadn't told him I'd taken the tests yet… The journey took is 30 minutes which was 10 minutes longer than it would have been if there hadn't been any snow on the ground – but the snow made it more picturesque so I wasn't complaining one little bit.

The party was already underway as we made our way through the streets, everyone laughing and drinking and eating. Children were running around to the different stands and costumed characters that were wandering around the streets – I held Arthur's hand, laughing as he edged out of the way of a guy dressed as Woody from Toy Story.

"Come on," he said, pulling me in the direction of the nearest bar. "I'll buy us both a drink. What would you like?"

"Just a Cola," I replied, following after him. He looked back at me and tilted his head.

"Just a Cola?" he asked.

I nodded and smiled up at him. "Just a Cola," I repeated, glancing down at my stomach. It seemed to take a moment, but he managed to catch up with my hints. In an instant, his eyes lit up and a large grin spread across his features.

"Are you…?"

Nodding again, my smile grew into a grin a little brighter than the one that he was sporting. "Arthur Kirkland, you and I are having a baby together," I said, laughing as he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me into the air.

"This is fantastic!" he laughed, spinning us around a bit – not too much though as we nearly lost his footing in the slippery snow. "You're really pregnant? When did you find out?"

"I found out yesterday," I replied, smiling down at him. "3 positive tests… It's still early days, of course, so we'll probably have to wait a bit longer before we tell anyone the news… But yeah… I'm pregnant…"

_**Notes:**_

**Quicky double chapter cos I'm a lazy person and that's all my reasoning…**

**Well guys. We didn't die. That's grand isn't it? We're all still alive!**

**So, let's all enjoy Christmas and wait for the next conspirers to come up with the next "THE WORLD IS DEFINITELY GOING TO END TODAY" date.**

**And it was obvious she was going to be knocked up, right? Yeah. **

**Simple story is simple. **


	19. December 22nd and 23rd

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Nineteen**

**December Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third**

_December 22__nd_

When it comes to Christmas, I have always been a big kid and to be frank, I didn't really care. Arthur had always said that I had been childish around Christmas – that I would always revert back to being a little kid around the holidays whenever it got too close to the big day; and I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

In the little village where we lived, there were always the happy smiley youthful people and a fair few happy smiley older persons – but more often than not, I would bump into someone in their 60s that had so much hatred towards Christmas and everything to do with it it made me feel like I never wanted to get to that age.

"Christmas is for children," they would say to me. "Grow up!"

I never would though – Christmas would always be the best holiday in the world to me; and when my child was born, I would make sure that they loved this holiday too. I would also make them aware of how sweet their father was around this time of year – especially when I had told him about the baby.

We had gone home from the street party earlier than we had been planning too, both of us too giddy to even think about being social with other members of the village. Arthur couldn't stop the large grin that had started to form on his face, his red cheeks lifting in that little way that always meant that he was truly happy – his eyes had a twinkle in them that I just couldn't stop looking at; it wasn't the stars above us or the Christmas lights littering the streets, it was just the sheer happiness that something was going so incredibly right for us.

His hand was holding onto mine tightly, as if it were is only physical connection to the child growing inside me. His gloved fingers brushed against my own as they interlocked, the grip firm but loving. As we walked, I leant up and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek causing his cheeks to redden a little more than from just the cold; he let go of my hand and put his arm around me, pulling me closer to him and kissing the top of my head through my baby blue beanie. I let out an elated laugh, holding onto him around his waist as we made our way onto the first bus that arrived – the same little routine happening as we got off the vehicle and made our way up the pathway of our garden and into the house.

When we went to bed, his arms kept themselves wrapped around me as he spooned me – his hands were resting lightly against my stomach, smoothing the skin as he murmured sweet nothings until we fell asleep.

The next morning, I got a nice surprise from my advent calendar from him – we were going to see more relatives, but this time we would be spending the weekend there before we saw them again on Christmas Day.

And which relatives would they be?

Only all of his family! The first family to actually open their arms to me.

Normally, they say girls will panic over what to put in their suitcase for a weekend away but there wasn't really anything that I needed that wasn't already in a draw nearby – so both of our suitcases were packed and ready to go before lunchtime.

The funny thing about our entire time in that little village was we did actually have a car – but we reserved it for larger travel such as this. So there we were driving all the way to Devon and the entire time Arthur explained to me what was going on:

We were going there this weekend as work had finally finished for his parents and school/college had let out for the younger children. Peter was finally able to not go into college, something he'd made everyone aware that he was very pleased about despite being terrified that he'd be 18 soon and leaving college all together; Scarlet was finished with Year R Christmas so they had been able to leave Scotland and make their way to their parents; and everyone else had taken holiday from work to be there.

Arthur's parent's home was a very large building – they weren't impressively rich, but they were exceedingly well off. There were enough rooms for each couple to have their privacy, and for the little girls to have a room, any boys, and Peter to keep his room to himself – not that anyone would want to spend time in Peter's room as it (according to Arthur's version of his mother on the phone) smelled like sweaty teenage boy, Doritos and Pot Noodle. Not to mention they had a dog too – a beautiful golden retriever called Benny.

Honestly, you wouldn't think that Benny was a dog at all – he was such a behaved creature, never barked around the children, was incredibly gently, got defensive around them and protected them like they were his puppies, and always showed affection to those he liked. He was an amazing dog, so well behaved and caring – he always came over to me and laid on my lap for a time when we went to visit during the year. He was only young too, just coming into adulthood for a dog.

I was really looking forward to seeing everyone; Liz (Arthur's mother), James (his father), Scott, Ambre, Scarlet, Bryn, Ruby, Jack, Ryan, Rochelle, Aednat, Joshua, Ava, Jinnie and Peter. There was going to be so much to do and so many people to talk to over the course of the next two days, plus the fact that Aednat and Ruby were aware of the date I'd be trying to find out about the baby.

When we finally arrived at the house, it seemed like we were the last ones there – everyone's cars were in the drive where they had once rested when they lived their during their childhood's, so Arthur parked our car and helped me out before walking up to the front door and pressing the doorbell.

It took a few minutes before someone finally hurried up to the door – two people actually. We chuckled as we saw a little girl with bright red hair get lifted up into the air by a man with equally as red hair through the tinted glass; it seemed as though Scarlet had made a break for it to get the door and Scott had just managed to stop her in time. Smiling as the door opened, we chuckled as Scott tried to keep a hold on Scarlet as the little girl tried to wriggle out of his hold.

"UNCLE ARTHUR!" she cried, grinning at him brightly. "AUNTY AMIE! YOU MADE IT!"

"Of course we made, Sweetheart," Arthur smiled, taking the happy child from his brother to give him a break. "We love to see you!"

Scott smiled at me, taking both our suitcases from me to put them by the stairs. "How're you doing, Amelia? Not spoken to you for a while."

"I'm fine, thanks, Scott," I replied, shutting the front door behind me and Arthur as he set Scarlet down on the floor – he was soon dragged into the large living room by her leaving Scott and I alone in the hallway. "How's things with you and Ambre?"

"Yeah, things are great," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. It was a trait I had learnt he did whenever he got bashful – which was anytime we talked about his wife, really. "Ambre's healthy, Keiron's healthy, Scarlet's doing well at school, and I got a promotion at work – things are looking bright."

"Good," I smiled, walking with the Scotsman into the living room. As much as I had been aware that the whole of his family would be there, it was still a slight shock to see the large group of people settled in the living room watching the kids play on the Wii – Arthur had been dragged into the game too, now playing a Disney quiz game.

Liz smiled at me and got up from her seat, walking over and giving me a warm hug as Scott moved to sit next to Ambre again. I hugged her back, smiling more as she always made me feel as though I had become an adopted daughter to her – anytime she was going out shopping when we were younger she would invite me to go along with her and her children, sometimes buying me a little treat. She was a very kindly woman, always willing to help people if they were in need.

"Hello, Darling," she smiled, smoothing my cheek a little. "How are you feeling? Arthur said to me on the phone the other week that you were ill."

"I'm better now," I replied. "Still got a bit of a cough but that's nothing."

"Well, that's good then," Liz said, looking round at the laughter that erupted as Arthur lost a round of the game. She chuckled and shook her head fondly. "He can become such a child around children."

"I know," I tittered. "I think that's how he's managed to put up with me for so long."

"He's 'put up with you' for so long because he loves you, Dear," Liz said, smiling at me. "Now come sit down and take that coat off."

A few hours passed, all involving games and entertaining the children before dinner was served. We all sat around the table in the dining room – even the children were given special little seats so that they could join us. We had a cold lunch – special meats and vegetables that didn't need cooking so that we could all just enjoy the time we had together, and because when we did this at this time of year Liz always wanted to make sure that the Christmas dinner we would be receiving on the 25th would be the best meal of the year.

I took my plate out into the kitchen when I was done, following after Aednat as she took out her plate, Joshua's and the twins'. Ruby, Ambre and Rochelle then followed us, shutting the door for a bit so that we could all have a private chat. I smiled at them, Aednat grinning a little and Ruby looking as though she could burst from keeping the secret from Ambre and Rochelle.

"What's going on?" said the Seychellois girl, looking between the three of us.

"Ruby looks fit to burst," Ambre commented, smoothing her bump.

"It's not really our news to say," Ruby said, smiling more. "But we need to know more!"

I chuckled and shook my head. "I'm only telling you now because you're family and I can trust you all," I explained. "Arthur and I have been trying for a baby… and I found out the other day that I am pregnant. It's early days, but…"

I didn't get to get the rest of my sentence out as the others had started to squeal and hug me – I laughed, trying to hug them all back as they congratulated me. We looked around when Liz came into the room, the woman looking rather flustered and confused.

"The kids are distracted by a game and Arthur's just gone to talk to all the men…" she said. "I assume there's a reason I've been ushered in here?"

"Amie's pregnant!" Rochelle grinned, the rest of us nodding. I smiled more at Liz who looked as though she was about to cry – she made her way over to me and hugged me, kissing my cheek and smiling.

"I'm so happy for you both," she smiled. "Oh, another grandchild…"

I chuckled. "It's only early days though," I said. "We can't tell the children yet because I wouldn't want to get them upset if anything should go wrong…"

"Don't worry," Aednat said. "We promise. Just relax and stay happy for that child inside you."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

_December 23__rd_

Everyone was still asleep when I woke up the next morning – Arthur included. So I managed to make my way out of Arthur's old bedroom and down to the living room without waking up a single person - I sat on the sofa and curled up slightly, turning on the TV at a quiet volume to watch the early morning TV that was available to me.

When we had gone to be that evening, Arthur told me that he had told the guys about the baby and I told him about the girls. It was sweet and nice knowing that it was slowly becoming more to real to us - we really were going to have this little family together, that we already had a family but that it was getting bigger slowly.

He had kept his arms around me again the entire evening, pressing soft kissing to my neck and shoulders until we fell asleep in that calm embrace.

As I sat and zoned out from the sounds of the TV, I jumped slightly when Benny hopped up onto the sofa and curled up with me – his furry head nuzzled against my stomach, something he never did before.

"You know, don't you?" I smiled, smoothing his head. He licked my hand in response, making me chuckle. "Yeah, Benny, you're gonna have another kid to play with soon!"

"Talking to Benny again, I see."

Gasping slightly, I looked around to the doorway and spotted Arthur leaning against the frame – he was smiling at me though so I relaxed a little.

"Yeah, Benny's a good listener," I replied, chuckling as he came over and sat with me on the sofa. Benny nudged him playfully before walking away to get some food, leaving us alone. "I still don't know how to thank you for everything you've been doing for me this month, Arthur… I spend hours trying to think of ways to repay you but I just can't think of anything half as sweet as what you've been doing for m-"

I was cut off before the end of my sentence by Arthur turning my head and kissing me deeply. It took me a moment but I soon melted against him and kissed him back, allowing him to pull me closer to him.

"You've already repaid me," he said as he pulled away, letting his lips linger closely to mine so that they barely brushed together. "You have been the best thing to ever come into my life, Amelia. I love you more than anything in the world, and just the fact that you love me and are willing to have a child with me makes me fall for you even more. Everything little thing you do makes me so happy every day. If anything, I'm the one repaying you."

_**Notes:**_

**YEAH! I FINALLY GOT OVER 2000 WORDS AGAIN!**

**I really hope that this chapter was better – I worked really hard to get it right so I hope it's paid off :)**

**AND…..**

**LAST CHAPTERS TOMORROW GUYS!**

**I know, it's sad but don't cry just yet! Though, I bet a lot of you cried for how bad this has been so far :/**


	20. December 24th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Twenty**

**December Twenty-Fourth**

**Christmas Eve**

_T'was the week before Christmas,_

_And all through the school,_

_The pupils were playing,_

_Acting like fools,_

_Sweet wrappers zoomed quickly through the air,_

_Each person smiling,_

_Not one with a care,_

_Pens, books and work were left to gather up dust,_

_Each person running,_

_Crying "Christmas or bust!"_

_Suddenly, one student climbed onto a table,_

_Gaining the attention of all people able,_

"_Everyone!" she called, "raise up your glass!_

_For this the best and last senior class!"_

"Wow, Arthur, I forgot just how much of a liar you were in Year Eleven," I laughed, ducking away from him as he tried to hit me with a cushion. We were sat in the living room of his parent's house, deciding that it would be stupid to go home for merely a day before coming back to spend Christmas with them. So, we were relaxing in the living room looking through old school books of Arthur's that his mother had kept stored away in the attic of the old building. He was getting ready to go get some more of our clothes and the presents that we had left behind when I had started to read on the poem that he had written for a mini competition in our English class back during our final year of school.

I knew for a fact that he hated most of the people in the room with us, and quite a lot of the people in the other classes in our year group – but he couldn't exactly write "you guys are bastards, hope to never see you again" could he? A, he needed it to rhyme – B, he wouldn't have won the large box of Milk Tray if he hadn't of made it so cheesy and heart-warming.

I'd forgotten about that poem though, despite being sat next to him in the classroom and watching him write it. I could remember how much I was trying not to snigger at him – I wasn't bothering to write a poem or anything of the sort, English wasn't my strong point as I kept reverting to 'American-English' where there are no extra U's and we say 'learned' and not 'learnt'. You'll find that I am improving in my terminology in this country, but I still slip up from time to time – something that employers and teachers found highly annoying.

"Arthur, stop!" I laughed, still trying to avoid the cushion. "I'm sorry!"

"So you should be!" Arthur grinned, pinning me down on the floor and tickling me instead of assaulting me with the cushion any further. "That was an award winning poem, I'll have you remember!"

"I know!" I laughed, wriggling to try and get away from his fingers. "I ate the prize!"

"SO YOU DID EAT MY CHOCOLATES!" he said, tickling me more. He leant down and pressed his lips to the bare skin that was exposed on my tummy and blew a raspberry against it, causing me the scream slightly and wriggle more.

"Arthur, please!" I begged.

"Oh noes!" came a little voice from the door. I was able to catch my breath as Arthur was tackled off of me by Scarlet, the little girl grinning as she pinned her uncle to the floor. "You can't tickle Aunty Amie anymore!" she giggled. "Cos I saved her!"

"I guess I'll just have to tickle you then!" Arthur grinned, lifting the little girl up above him and tickling her. Sitting up, I chuckled and moved all the school books out of the way as the other children hurried over to try and save Scarlet – they were successful as they had started to tickle Arthur in retaliation. "That's it!" he said, scooping them up into his arms – all the kids started to laugh as he carried them out of the room.

I smiled and looked back at the books, curling up on the sofa to read through the many essays that Arthur had written out on the fading pages – _1984 – Has Big Brother Already Began His Watch_; _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Analyse the Basilisk Attack Scene_; _Who Was To Blame For The Deaths of Romeo and Juliet_; _A Streetcar Named Desire – Connotations Between Characters and Title_; _Frankenstein – Who Was The True Monster_; _A Life Without Civilisation – The Message Within Lord of the Flies_.

Every single essay that Arthur had written since his first day at secondary school had received the highest grades they could: Year 7 and 8 were non-GCSE based so he received a Level 7 for each (basically an A*), Year 9, 10 and 11 he received A*s for everything – plus Distinctions within the BTEC based classes that he had picked up.

I got A*s and As too in my classes, but they weren't really as celebrated as they were Arthur's – what with only relatives not caring for anything to do with me. We had gone out for dinner (Arthur's family and I) to celebrate the high grades he had received when our GCSE results came in at the end of Year 11 and it was only until Bryn asked me what I had received that I finally got some recognition – they turned it into a double celebration seeing as I wasn't going to get a real celebration of my own.

Also, I think they had been feeling a bit guilty at that point from praising Arthur so much in front of me when I had done just as well as he had… But I never told them I had picked up on that.

After popping his head in to say he was heading out, I watched as Arthur left through the front door and sighed a little. Getting up from my seat, I went up to mine and Arthur's room to get the advent calendar from the desk – I had been asked about why I had this calendar when it seemed so childish but I explained it was Arthur's idea and that he was giving me a treat each day.

I pulled open the little cardboard door with the number 24 on it and took out the chocolate, however as I ate it I realised that there was a note wrapped around something within the plastic. I pulled it out carefully to find it was a little bronze key, the top of which was shaped like an ornate heart – I hastily pulled the note away from the key to see what the explanation was this time only to get stumped by how simple it was:

_Keep this safe; you'll need it tomorrow._

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

Seeing as Arthur wouldn't be back at the house for a little while, I decided that I would take a little wander through the town to see if I could find my old house – Dad never said if he had moved to a new house with Rosalynn just that they were living together, so it was safe to assume that he was in the same place.

I had put the key into the front pouch of my suitcase to keep it safe as I didn't want to take outside with me, plus I had no chains to put it on to keep it around my neck – also, Liz was doing a large wash so if I had left it in my pockets then there was a large chance that it would get lost in the washing machine…

So, I was walking through the snowy streets of the place I had spent 10 years of my life – I could see all of the places where I had made some very happy memories, or escaped from some of the worse ones. I walked past the park where I would run away to during the worse days with my father, the swings were broken from vandalism and there was profanities scrawled all across the slide and crude messages…

It had gotten worse from what I could remember it being, which kind of held some meaning with me – all those times I had needed it, it had been a small haven for me to escape too; but now that everything was turning out right, it was falling to pieces… the haven disappearing as it was no longer needed for me. I just wished that there could be some restoration put upon it so that it could continue to be a good haven for any other trouble teenagers looking for a place to escape to for a couple of hours…

There was the old café where Arthur and I had gone to during our first date – it was getting old like the people who owned it, but the elderly couple packing away the tables on the outside and closing up for the next few days smiled at me the same way they did when I was younger – they were happy and warm, both of them surviving the years with each other.

Finally, I got into the area where the newer buildings were still standing tall. I could see a towel being hung from the railing of the balcony of the little flat I had once accommodated, meaning that it was now the home of new person – the towel was pink and fraying and when the owner came out to collect it, I could see she seemed to be a lot like me… So perhaps she was another person who had run away from a life they never asked for, someone who was trying to make the best of what they had and where they wanted to go…

I continued to walk for a little while longer until I got round to the areas where the smaller houses were – and I was able to spot my father's house straight away just from the sheer difference it held to the one in my memories.

The grass was cut but hidden by the snow, decorations hanging from the gutters and lights twinkling along the new white-picket fence. The windows were clean, the door was clean and seemed to hold a new coat of red paint – not too new just not the old pealing blue that had been chipping away from the time we had moved in when I was 11 and moved out at 21… There was no litter in the garden, the gate wasn't broken anymore and it looked like a really nice place to live.

Though I was nervous, I made my way up the garden path and knocked cautiously on the front door. I didn't want to intrude, but I was also really tempted to see what other changes had happened to the tiny house.

But no one was home…

With a sigh, I rummaged through my bag and pulled out the two Christmas cards that were in my bag – one for Dad and Rosalynn, the other for Matt and Sofia (I knew they were staying with Dad over Christmas then going to see Sofia's family before New Year's). I carefully posted them through the letter box, getting a notepad out and writing them a quick message:

_I dropped by to see you as we're staying at Arthur's parent's house for Christmas. Not that I expect you to know where they live. So, just have a merry Christmas, and I'll see you soon maybe. - Amie x_

_**Notes:**_

**We're almost at the end guys!**

**Just one more chapter to go and it shall be up later today :)**

**Thank you all so much for your support on this series, and the nice comments/tips. You're all great!**

**Oh, and I wrote that poem at the beginning of the story back in 2010 during my last year at school :/ It sucks, I know, and it wasn't part of a competition but my teacher did like it a lot :)**

**And what could that little key be for, I wonder?**

**You shall find out later today :)**


	21. December 25th

**Hearts of Winter**

**Chapter Twenty-One**

**December Twenty-Fifth**

**Christmas Day**

When I woke up the next morning, it was to the sounds of giggling and muttering. It was still dark outside, I could tell that despite the blinds in Arthur's bedroom being shut. You could always see the dim glow of the streetlights nearby when it was still dark, and right in the corner I could just about make out the orange lighting.

It was bright enough; I just couldn't see it past Arthur who was hugging me into the mattress. It was amusing lying there and listening to the sounds of the children scurrying around to each other at that early hour whilst having a large child lying on top of me – I knew that he was awake because he was sniggering slightly at every shove I gave him.

"What time is it?" I asked, trying to look over Arthur's shoulder at the alarm clock beside his bed.

"Who cares?" he replied, blocking my view. This prompted me to hit him on the shoulder, but he only laughed at me.

Dick.

"Come on, Arthur, let me see!" I said. With a little effort, I got him to move out of my way, glancing over his shoulder to see that it was 6AM. "Well, that explains why the kids are scurrying around…"

"What does?"

"It's 6, idiot," I said, flopping back against the mattress. "Scarlet did this last year as well, remember? I think it's cos Scott said that 6 was morning time so she takes it literally…"

"Are you saying that you didn't do the same with Matthew when you were younger?" he asked, looking down at me. "Even with that sibling rivalry overload thing."

"Oh shut it," I said, rolling my eyes and smiling up at him. Chuckling, Arthur kissed my forehead – rolling off of me so that I could get some air back into me properly.

Every Christmas since we had moved in together had been the same – the first had been at our house, we had woken up in our new bed and snuggled together under the sheets as a fresh layer of snow settled on the ground outside. Then we opened our presents before eating our Christmas dinner and heading to Arthur's parents to spend the rest of the day and Boxing Day with them.

The next year we didn't really feel like having the stress – Arthur's job had been overworking him and underpaying him, I had been going through a hell of a time with the day care as someone had Tweeted about a moment of unproven neglect as someone had apparently been holding a child out of the window. So that's when the tradition of coming to Arthur's parent's house began.

After a moment or so, we both got out of bed – Arthur heading for the door first only to get bombarded by a hoard of little children as soon as he opened the door.

"Unka Arfur, Mummy won't get up!" Ava pouted, looking up at her uncle with wide green eyes. "We wanna open presents now!"

"I'm hungwy though!" Jinnie sighed, looking at her twin as she held her stomach. "Eat fiwst, Mummy says… I want fooooooooood!"

"They've been like this since 4…" Scarlet said, rolling her eyes a little – she really did have all the sass that her father had when he was younger. "I've tried telling them but they won't listen to me…"

"Well, let's let your parents have a lie in, yeah?" I said, picking up Ava as Arthur picked up Jinnie. "We'll make you some breakfast, we can watch some Christmas cartoons and wait for your Mummies and Daddies to get up! Sound like a plan?"

"Yep!" giggled the twins, holding onto us. Jack and Scarlet giggled too, hurrying downstairs to get out of our way whilst Arthur and I carried the twins down to the kitchen. We made sure that all the children stayed with us and didn't venture into the living room – I knew from experience that the temptation of seeing all those presents would probably end up being a little too great for such little children to handle. So, we sat them on the kitchen side and let them watch as we got them all some nice warm porridge – helping Ava and Jinnie to eat as they were the youngest.

As soon as they were finished, we put all the dirty plates into the dish washer and went into the living room with the children and turned on the TV as quickly as we could as their eyes began to scan over the vast amount of presents that were spread out across the room – the sacks that had been left out for each child filled to bursting point which matched the state of the underside of the tree.

We managed to sit them down and get them to watch some shows on Boomerang – apparently Ava and Jinnie had a soft spot for Scooby Doo and Yogi Bear, so both Christmas specials were watched in silence as the children stared in awe at the screen.

Eventually, the rest of the family made their way downstairs – one couple at a time, all yawning and smiling at us when they saw our merry little group all huddled on the carpet; Ava was snuggled up on my lap watching the snow, Jack hugging my side, Scarlet was snuggling Arthur's side as Jinnie was sat on his lap. A few of them actually went 'awww' which caused a few blushes on mine and Arthur's part as they were all probably imagining us with our own child/future children.

We spent the majority of the morning opening all of the presents – we made sure to go through all of the children's presents first, getting rid of the paper into a black bin bag so that nothing was lost in the chaos that was Christmas with the Kirkland's. As soon as the disasters of opening the packaging of dolls and those fiddly little wires had gone underway, the grown-ups also started to give each other the presents that they had bought each other – and with a family that large the present mass for the adults was almost as large as that of the children's.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

A few hours later, we were all splitting up to spend time with our own little families or heading off to get washed and dressed. I had gone upstairs with Arthur – him heading for the bathroom to have a quick shower after I had, and me dressed in the living room finally getting round to opening my final advent calendar door.

I pulled open the little door, slightly sad that it was the last one of the year – it seemed as though an amazing journey was coming to an end, but I was just being stupid… I pulled out the chocolate and ate it, pulling out the note too to find out my final clue:

_Think back of 14 years, Amelia. You have a special key – find the box for which it fits and answer one question. Just keep thinking of those 14 years._

Taking a deep breath, I got the little key from my suitcase and made my way out of our bedroom, and headed downstairs to do some thinking. This was some sort of hint, that much I was aware – but I wasn't sure what to do with it or where to look.

But then it hit me – 14 years had to mean myself and Arthur; I mean, we had known each other that long, had gotten together when we were 14… And to find a little box, it had to be somewhere where those memories were stored – not just by our own minds…

Arthur's father had videoed most of our time together, so I went to the living room as quick as I could – walking past the rest of his family who slowly made their ways out of the room. Crouching down, I shifted some DVDs of home movies out of the way and indeed found the box tucked away out of sight. I pulled it out of its hiding spot and stood up, putting the key inside the lock and turning it until I heard it click and the lid popped open slightly.

Slowly, I opened it and blinked at what I saw inside – it was a silver ring with diamonds encrusted throughout the band and a sapphire set at the very front. My heart started to speed up, so I turned around to go find Arthur only to see him knelt down on the floor behind me.

He smiled up at me, staying on his knee. "Amie, I never thought that there could be anyone that would change my life as much as you have… I used to be such an angry person, so much resentment towards the world built up inside such a young person – but then you came along. You were bubbly yet shy, brilliant and modest and you helped me to see the life that I could have.

"You were the first person I ever thought to be more than just my equal – you are so much better than me in every way, and it's the little quirks you have that make me fall in love with you more every single day.

"The way you laugh, the way you smile, the twinkle in your eyes that makes them shine a brighter blue than any sapphire. I said there was just one question you had to answer, so here it is:

"Amelia Eleanor Jones, will you do me the greatest honour of becoming my wife?"

I didn't know when it was that I had teared up, but I could feel the dampness on my cheeks as I dropped down onto my knees to kiss him. As I pulled back, I smiled at him brightly.

"Yes."

_**Notes:**_

**And so the story concludes.**

**It was very obvious I was going to do that but I don't care, I wanted a cute story and damnit that's what I was aiming to do!**

**I may do a continuation of this story – a short little thing for their wedding and their child. But I've not come to any conclusions yet.**

**But anyways, thank you supporting my stories and (IrishMaid, I think you're thinking of Unsterblich ;] Oon-ster-bleek) I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and have a wonderful time with your families tomorrow.**


End file.
